Merry Christmas! Or, as the Ukrainians would say, With the birth of Christ! (I'm not sure exactly how that works, or what it's referring to being "with" the birth of Christ, but that's what they say). That's what the subject line above says, by the way.
So, here's how my only Ukrainian Christmas Eve went (the first was in the MTC):
Well, allright, the story actually starts in August, when I was still in my first transfer in this area (this being my fourth). Elder Lewis and I had received a referral from our first counselor in the bishopric. Apparently, he owned his own roofing company and had made quite a bit of money for himself, so instead of living in an apartment, he built a very large house in the woods surrounding Kyiv. (How big is his house? Let's just say he has a sauna and a small swimming pool in his basement). He also has a guest house behind his real house, and at the time he was renting it out for a week to the son of his wife's best childhood friend (who's also a member in the ward) before he left for university in Italy. The son, Pavel, wasn't a member, but was really interested in meeting with missionaries, so Elder Lewis and I taught him almost every day that week, then committed him to talk to the missionaries in Italy when he got there; and then he left, and we never expected to see him again. Flash forward to last Sunday, where halfway through priesthood meeting who should come in but Pavel. After a lot of catching up, it turns out he really did meet with the missionaries, heard all the lessons, and has been attending church every week for the past three months. However, he doesn't feel his testimony of the Book of Mormon is strong enough for him to be baptised, so he hasn't quite made that final step. While he's in town for the holidays, he's living in the same guest house, so our first counselor, Yuri Lysenko, invited us over for family home evening/Christmas Eve. We went over, and after a great discussion with Pavel and Yuri about baptism and the church, we had the largest meal I have eaten in my entire mission; there was literally too much food to be on their large dining room table at the same time, so they were constantly switching out plates. They had chicken, turkey, pork, mashed potatoes, potato wedges, two kinds of really good Ukrainian salad (one made with crab meat, carrots, mayonaise, and pineapple chunks--really good--and the other with peas, potatoes, chicken, and pickles), buderbrod (open faced sandwiches with cheese and sausage), Ukrainian bread, Ukrainian juice, and Russian soda ("Baikal;" I'm pretty sure Dad and I had some before my mission), and then afterward, cake and apple slices. As missionaries, we were required to spend the entire 2 1/2 hours we were there eating continuously. I've never been so full in my life. I stood up and I felt like sitting back down. They then gave us new socks, a little Christmas tree, and two ornaments (snowmen dressed up like metro workers). We got to listen to their little children sing Christmas songs in Russian and their littlest son, Andrushka, recited a whole bunch of little poems. Earlier that evening I had felt a little homesick; not anymore.
Merry Christmas everyone! I can't wait to get certain phone calls tonight! (We'll be in the new apartment, by the way...)
Merry Christmas!
--Elder Hurst
Almost Christmas... (12/19/2007)
Hello everyone! I'd say "Merry Christmas," but the mission will have Christmas next week be a P-Day for us, so I can just email then and be timelier. How's Christmas in America so far? Here in Ukraine, as usual, it's only being celebrated by members of the Church (well...celebrated Western-wise; everyone else celebrates by drinking). The big holiday here, thanks to eighty years of Communism, is New Years, so everyone's buying their New Year's trees and presents nowadays. New Year's here is basically an exact copy of Christmas in America, except a few days later, without any reference to religion, and literally entirely commercial. And it involves a lot more vodka and beer. In fact, the entire holiday season--which, thanks to Ukraine's turbulent history involving calendar changes, involves Western Christmas (Dec 25), New New Years (Dec 31/Jan 1), Old Christmas (Jan 7), and Old New Years (Jan 13/14)--is basically one large holiday. Most businesses literally shut down because no one would come to work anyway. On New Year's Day, the streets are almost entirely empty aside from a few people passed out drunk along the side of the sidewalk. The entire country goes on vacation/hangover for a month.
In other news, we have an investigator with a baptismal date! Her name is Anya. She's a little...strange, but she loves the Book of Mormon and Liahona magazines, and she's really good friends with a slightly less active member. She lives in a little village outside of Kyiv called Irpin. Her date is for January 5, although it may be changed to January 6 because the stake wants all baptisms done on Sunday for some reason.
On December 27, I will have been in Ukraine for one year. That's the official "old man in the mission" mark. The next big step is when the sister in our MTC group, Sister Russin, goes home, because that means we only have six months left. Yikes. I seem to remember that two years used to be a long time.
This week two native sister missionaries joined our district. As district leader, it means that every night I get to try and talk them through some problem in their new apartment, listen to them talk about how little they know the area (then remind them that I know it about as well as they do), and, above all, do it all in Ukrainian. It's fun. One of them is from Armenia, and the other is from Ukraine, from a city called Dnipropetrovsk (they just opened a mission centered in that city earlier this year). Thankfully, they both know English pretty well, so I can fall back on that when necessary (although I've realized a bit lately how much I'm able to speak in Ukrainian and understand in Russian; it's a really cool feeling).
All right, well, that's it for me this week. I'll write again on Christmas!
--Elder Hurst
In other news, we have an investigator with a baptismal date! Her name is Anya. She's a little...strange, but she loves the Book of Mormon and Liahona magazines, and she's really good friends with a slightly less active member. She lives in a little village outside of Kyiv called Irpin. Her date is for January 5, although it may be changed to January 6 because the stake wants all baptisms done on Sunday for some reason.
On December 27, I will have been in Ukraine for one year. That's the official "old man in the mission" mark. The next big step is when the sister in our MTC group, Sister Russin, goes home, because that means we only have six months left. Yikes. I seem to remember that two years used to be a long time.
This week two native sister missionaries joined our district. As district leader, it means that every night I get to try and talk them through some problem in their new apartment, listen to them talk about how little they know the area (then remind them that I know it about as well as they do), and, above all, do it all in Ukrainian. It's fun. One of them is from Armenia, and the other is from Ukraine, from a city called Dnipropetrovsk (they just opened a mission centered in that city earlier this year). Thankfully, they both know English pretty well, so I can fall back on that when necessary (although I've realized a bit lately how much I'm able to speak in Ukrainian and understand in Russian; it's a really cool feeling).
All right, well, that's it for me this week. I'll write again on Christmas!
--Elder Hurst
Merry December 12! (12/12/2007)
Hello again everyone! I hope everyone's staying warm, where applicable (Californians and Arizonans need not read that sentence). The weather's been pretty chilly here, although we've been without snow for quite some time, which is nice. Supposedly, this winter will be the warmest since last year, which was the warmest in the past 300 years or so. It's better than two winters ago, which I've been told was the coldest in 200 years.
We had an interesting little experience on Sunday evening. We were out tracting at about 8 in the evening. People weren't too interested, but we still had about 3/4 of the building left to do, so we were still hopeful. As we rang the doorbell to a large black door, we noticed two sets of heavy footsteps on the stairs. Turning, we saw two militsia--two policemen--coming up towards us. The first one told us to scoot off to the side so they could get past; the second asked us what we were doing there. We told him we were missionaries, and we showed him our tags. They told us to go off upstairs, so we started heading up the staircase when one said, "Show us your passports." We took them out, and the militsioner tried to take Elder Taylor's. Having been thoroughly forewarned about this type of thing, he refused, and the militsioner tried to take it again. Finally, the other guy said, "Okay, come with us to the station." We started heading down the stairs, frustrated that we'd have to spend the next hour or so in a Ukrainian police station just because we weren't going to let them steal our passports, when the person who called the police in the first place started yelling, "Where are you guys?" The militsia, realizing that maybe two American missionaries weren't their top priority, turned to us and said, in English, "Good bye." We turned and headed off quickly. I believe there were about 15 silent prayers answered right there.
In other news, I'm not sure if I've written this already or not, but Elder Stagg, our mysterious relative, is in my district now. It's been a lot of fun. On New Year's here, missionaries are allowed to spend the night together at one of our apartments, so we're excited to get to hang out together.
We have an investigator right now named Lilya. We've been teaching her for quite some time (I found her when I was here with Elder Lewis, if you remember back that far--it was August) and she's finally making some good steps forward. She came to church for the first time last week and really enjoyed it, although she was disappointed in our hymns; apparently they're a lot jazzier in her other church, and they're ALL written in the first person. But, she told us that after she came home she only wanted to read in the Book of Mormon, which she did all that evening. The only problem is that we've discovered she just barely lives in another ward's boundaries, and she's technically Elder Stagg's investigator. Normally that wouldn't be as big of a problem, but we've been teaching her for the past 4 1/2 months, and she knows our ward very well. Our bishop has advised us that we need to pass her to the other elders, which we'll be doing this Saturday. Wish her luck!
Well, that's my week. Thanks for everything! Have a good week!
--Brett
We had an interesting little experience on Sunday evening. We were out tracting at about 8 in the evening. People weren't too interested, but we still had about 3/4 of the building left to do, so we were still hopeful. As we rang the doorbell to a large black door, we noticed two sets of heavy footsteps on the stairs. Turning, we saw two militsia--two policemen--coming up towards us. The first one told us to scoot off to the side so they could get past; the second asked us what we were doing there. We told him we were missionaries, and we showed him our tags. They told us to go off upstairs, so we started heading up the staircase when one said, "Show us your passports." We took them out, and the militsioner tried to take Elder Taylor's. Having been thoroughly forewarned about this type of thing, he refused, and the militsioner tried to take it again. Finally, the other guy said, "Okay, come with us to the station." We started heading down the stairs, frustrated that we'd have to spend the next hour or so in a Ukrainian police station just because we weren't going to let them steal our passports, when the person who called the police in the first place started yelling, "Where are you guys?" The militsia, realizing that maybe two American missionaries weren't their top priority, turned to us and said, in English, "Good bye." We turned and headed off quickly. I believe there were about 15 silent prayers answered right there.
In other news, I'm not sure if I've written this already or not, but Elder Stagg, our mysterious relative, is in my district now. It's been a lot of fun. On New Year's here, missionaries are allowed to spend the night together at one of our apartments, so we're excited to get to hang out together.
We have an investigator right now named Lilya. We've been teaching her for quite some time (I found her when I was here with Elder Lewis, if you remember back that far--it was August) and she's finally making some good steps forward. She came to church for the first time last week and really enjoyed it, although she was disappointed in our hymns; apparently they're a lot jazzier in her other church, and they're ALL written in the first person. But, she told us that after she came home she only wanted to read in the Book of Mormon, which she did all that evening. The only problem is that we've discovered she just barely lives in another ward's boundaries, and she's technically Elder Stagg's investigator. Normally that wouldn't be as big of a problem, but we've been teaching her for the past 4 1/2 months, and she knows our ward very well. Our bishop has advised us that we need to pass her to the other elders, which we'll be doing this Saturday. Wish her luck!
Well, that's my week. Thanks for everything! Have a good week!
--Brett
New comp, drunk grandmas and zone conference (Dec 5, 2007)
Hello again everyone! Things are going really well over here, unless you count the weather, which is either cold and snowing, cold and raining, or just cold. But, other than that, things really are going well.
Transfers came and went, and I have a new companion, Elder Taylor. He's a lot quieter than Elder Higgins was, but from what I hear members in all the places he's served love him, which is good; we've worked really hard on gaining the trust of the members in this area.
So we had an interesting meeting on Saturday. One of our investigators, a lady named Lilya, decided after our lesson that she wanted to give us some herbal tea (Ukrainians love tea) and cookies. Her mom was also there; and you'll need to understand, her mom is an older woman who's pretty much drunk all the time. So, Lilya comes out and sets down her cookies, which are all nicely arranged on a platter, when her mom comes out with this beat-up pot full of something, pulls one of the things out, holds it out to me, and says, "Eat!" Lilya immediately begins slapping her hand and saying, "Go away! Don't give them that!" but then the water for the tea finished boiling and she had to leave the room, leaving Elder Taylor and I with this drunken babushka and her mysterious bowl of food, which she still held out to me (for some reason, only me) and said, "Eat. It's good. It's healthy. Eat!" Our bishop was with us on the lesson, so I turned to him and asked, as casually as I could, "So, Bishop...do you like this?" He shrugged and said, "It's not bad." I slowly turned back, took the thing from the babushka, and took a bite. It wasn't too bad; basically, it was like a crepe with sweetened condensed milk spread on it, except it was really cold, and I'm not sure how fresh it was. The babushka smiled and said, "It's good, isn't it?" I agreed, and then when Lilya came back, her mom said, "You see Lilya? He said he loves it!" Thankfully, after the one, I didn't have to eat any others. However, as we drank our tea, Lilya's mom again left the room, and when she came back she was holding a thick, short wooden rod. Our bishop asked what it was, and she told us that it was what she used to keep children in line. Lilya then jumped in and told us that she usually hides it from her mom so she can't use it. All in all, an interesting experience.
Well, it's that time again, unfortunately. I love you all, and I'll write again next week!
--Brett
PS - That's really cool about Steven! Montreal, eh?
PPS - Thanks for the package Dad! I was able to pick it up yesterday.
Transfers came and went, and I have a new companion, Elder Taylor. He's a lot quieter than Elder Higgins was, but from what I hear members in all the places he's served love him, which is good; we've worked really hard on gaining the trust of the members in this area.
So we had an interesting meeting on Saturday. One of our investigators, a lady named Lilya, decided after our lesson that she wanted to give us some herbal tea (Ukrainians love tea) and cookies. Her mom was also there; and you'll need to understand, her mom is an older woman who's pretty much drunk all the time. So, Lilya comes out and sets down her cookies, which are all nicely arranged on a platter, when her mom comes out with this beat-up pot full of something, pulls one of the things out, holds it out to me, and says, "Eat!" Lilya immediately begins slapping her hand and saying, "Go away! Don't give them that!" but then the water for the tea finished boiling and she had to leave the room, leaving Elder Taylor and I with this drunken babushka and her mysterious bowl of food, which she still held out to me (for some reason, only me) and said, "Eat. It's good. It's healthy. Eat!" Our bishop was with us on the lesson, so I turned to him and asked, as casually as I could, "So, Bishop...do you like this?" He shrugged and said, "It's not bad." I slowly turned back, took the thing from the babushka, and took a bite. It wasn't too bad; basically, it was like a crepe with sweetened condensed milk spread on it, except it was really cold, and I'm not sure how fresh it was. The babushka smiled and said, "It's good, isn't it?" I agreed, and then when Lilya came back, her mom said, "You see Lilya? He said he loves it!" Thankfully, after the one, I didn't have to eat any others. However, as we drank our tea, Lilya's mom again left the room, and when she came back she was holding a thick, short wooden rod. Our bishop asked what it was, and she told us that it was what she used to keep children in line. Lilya then jumped in and told us that she usually hides it from her mom so she can't use it. All in all, an interesting experience.
Well, it's that time again, unfortunately. I love you all, and I'll write again next week!
--Brett
PS - That's really cool about Steven! Montreal, eh?
PPS - Thanks for the package Dad! I was able to pick it up yesterday.
Transfer info and the worst metro ride of my life (11/28/2007)
Hello again everyone, it is I, Elder Hurst, once again. Well, it's transfer season again, but as usual lately, I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to be staying in Sviatoshinsky for another transfer; Elder Higgins is going to be leaving, however, so I'll be getting a new companion here shortly. It's kind of fun staying in an area for so long; I feel like I know this area like the back of my hand, and I know the ward far better than any other ward I've been in. In fact, if anyone comes to visit Ukraine with me after I finish my mission, this is probably the sacrament meeting we'd go to. Also, we somehow lucked out and have gotten to live in a usually-reserved-for-senior-couples apartment, which means it's one of the nicest apartments in the mission. And this will be my fourth transfer in it.
We had Thanksgiving this past week, and it was a lot of fun. Our mission president's wife, a senior sister, and a senior couple all made dinner, which was really good; real turkey, mashed potatoes, and sweet potatoes, with corn and stuffing and something with green beans that tasted good. (I haven't had lunch yet today, so this is making me pretty hungry). Every district then did a skit, which included one district bringing in a live chicken and another district acting out the Church film "The Touch of the Master's Hand," only instead of being a violin it was an apple, and it was about the importance of washing fruit in bleach here. Then, we got to watch Fiddler on the Roof, and you have to understand, our mission rules here are that we can only watch movies produced by the church, so when we got to see this, it felt like the greatest movie experience of our lives.
Anyway, on a somewhat more disturbing note, I had a 37-year-old woman flirt with me on a metro. She had me cornered, and since this was Ukraine, there were so many people packed on around us that escape was impossible. She offered me candy and wanted to trade ties with me (why she was wearing a tie I'm not too sure). I refused, but she then decided showed me pictures of her kids, which include a daughter who is my same age. Creepy. Apparently, she lives in a different city (Zhytomer); she asked if I was ever going to visit there. I said, "Da ni," which is a handy little Ukrainian phrase that means, "Nope!" (In Russian it's "Da nyet," by the way). I was pretty glad to get off of that particular metro.
Well, that's all the news from me. Say hi to Hazel for me, and tell her that I'm the coolest uncle she'll never meet for another year. Oh, before I forget, no one ever told me where Steve got his call to! I got the song email a few months back, and then all of a sudden he's mysteriously going into the MTC!
--Brett
PS - I can't remember if I said this last week or not, but thanks for the package Mom!
We had Thanksgiving this past week, and it was a lot of fun. Our mission president's wife, a senior sister, and a senior couple all made dinner, which was really good; real turkey, mashed potatoes, and sweet potatoes, with corn and stuffing and something with green beans that tasted good. (I haven't had lunch yet today, so this is making me pretty hungry). Every district then did a skit, which included one district bringing in a live chicken and another district acting out the Church film "The Touch of the Master's Hand," only instead of being a violin it was an apple, and it was about the importance of washing fruit in bleach here. Then, we got to watch Fiddler on the Roof, and you have to understand, our mission rules here are that we can only watch movies produced by the church, so when we got to see this, it felt like the greatest movie experience of our lives.
Anyway, on a somewhat more disturbing note, I had a 37-year-old woman flirt with me on a metro. She had me cornered, and since this was Ukraine, there were so many people packed on around us that escape was impossible. She offered me candy and wanted to trade ties with me (why she was wearing a tie I'm not too sure). I refused, but she then decided showed me pictures of her kids, which include a daughter who is my same age. Creepy. Apparently, she lives in a different city (Zhytomer); she asked if I was ever going to visit there. I said, "Da ni," which is a handy little Ukrainian phrase that means, "Nope!" (In Russian it's "Da nyet," by the way). I was pretty glad to get off of that particular metro.
Well, that's all the news from me. Say hi to Hazel for me, and tell her that I'm the coolest uncle she'll never meet for another year. Oh, before I forget, no one ever told me where Steve got his call to! I got the song email a few months back, and then all of a sudden he's mysteriously going into the MTC!
--Brett
PS - I can't remember if I said this last week or not, but thanks for the package Mom!
Happy Turkey Day! (11/22/2007)
Happy Turkey day! Well, our office elders here decided to send an email with a really large attachment that filled the rest of my inbox space, so I wasn't able to get anyone's emails today, except for Grandma and Grandpa Hurst's. I spent a little time since then cleaning it out, but that means my email's going to have to be kind of short today.
We had a very cool experience last Thursday. The night before, we had planned out our day like always, and had things in a certain order; after study, we would place up some English flyers near a metro stop called Akademmistechko, and then after lunch (so at about 2), we would stop by some less active members and try to give them a church magazine. However, on Thursday morning, one of our investigators called and told us that he wanted to meet us that day at 3:30, but it would be halfway across town. We agreed and decided to skip our stop bys and put up english flyers for a little longer; then, we both had a feeling that it would be better to do our stop bys and postpone our flyers instead. So, after study, instead of going to Akademmistechko, we went to where our stop bys were (a street called Tupolyeva). It took us a while to get down there because Tupolyeva is pretty out of the way--in fact, missionaries hadn't really visited this area in a very long time. We went down and walked up to the first apartment, where no one was home. Suddenly, from the doorway to the apartment building we heard someone say, in perfect English, "Missionaries!" Startled, we both turned, and saw a girl about twenty five or so. As it turned out, she was a member of the church from Oregon who was here as part of an English teaching program. Apparently, she had been having a really hard time here, and that day was especially hard. She wanted a priesthood blessing, but, this being Ukraine and she not knowing Russian or Ukrainian, she didn't really have any hope of getting one; however, she said a prayer that morning that she might be able to get a blessing. She then went for a walk to calm down a bit, and saw Elder Higgins and I walking into an apartment building. When we gave her a blessing, I had the most distinct impression I've had in a long time that we truly are instruments in the Lord's hands. There's no feeling quite like realizing that you are the answer to someone's prayer.
Well, that's all the time I've got today. Have a good and happy Thanksgiving, and I'll write again next Wednesday!
--Elder Hurst
PS - Thanks for the package Mom! It got here safe and sound, and has been thoroughly enjoyed since then. I think that every spare minute of my day has now been taken up by Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
We had a very cool experience last Thursday. The night before, we had planned out our day like always, and had things in a certain order; after study, we would place up some English flyers near a metro stop called Akademmistechko, and then after lunch (so at about 2), we would stop by some less active members and try to give them a church magazine. However, on Thursday morning, one of our investigators called and told us that he wanted to meet us that day at 3:30, but it would be halfway across town. We agreed and decided to skip our stop bys and put up english flyers for a little longer; then, we both had a feeling that it would be better to do our stop bys and postpone our flyers instead. So, after study, instead of going to Akademmistechko, we went to where our stop bys were (a street called Tupolyeva). It took us a while to get down there because Tupolyeva is pretty out of the way--in fact, missionaries hadn't really visited this area in a very long time. We went down and walked up to the first apartment, where no one was home. Suddenly, from the doorway to the apartment building we heard someone say, in perfect English, "Missionaries!" Startled, we both turned, and saw a girl about twenty five or so. As it turned out, she was a member of the church from Oregon who was here as part of an English teaching program. Apparently, she had been having a really hard time here, and that day was especially hard. She wanted a priesthood blessing, but, this being Ukraine and she not knowing Russian or Ukrainian, she didn't really have any hope of getting one; however, she said a prayer that morning that she might be able to get a blessing. She then went for a walk to calm down a bit, and saw Elder Higgins and I walking into an apartment building. When we gave her a blessing, I had the most distinct impression I've had in a long time that we truly are instruments in the Lord's hands. There's no feeling quite like realizing that you are the answer to someone's prayer.
Well, that's all the time I've got today. Have a good and happy Thanksgiving, and I'll write again next Wednesday!
--Elder Hurst
PS - Thanks for the package Mom! It got here safe and sound, and has been thoroughly enjoyed since then. I think that every spare minute of my day has now been taken up by Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
It looks like Christmas (well...it looks cold at least) November 14 2007
Hello again! Thank you all for your emails. It was fun today to get on and, in total, have 18 new emails to read. It was especially enjoyable because my companion, who has already gotten 4 packages in the past transfer and a half from home, and who gets about 5 letters a week on average, only gets about 2 or 3 emails, so at least I beat him there. Take that, Higgins.
This was a fun past week. This Sunday, our Primary had their annual program, and they had us get up and sing Called to Serve with them (in Ukrainian, of course). It was a lot of fun. I love little Ukrainian kids. One little boy didn't want to sit up front without his dad, so his dad came up and sat in the little wooden chair with his son on his lap; later, the same kid had a line to say about how coming to church helps his faith grow, and after he kind of mumbled it out, he looked at the congregation and said, "Understood?!" (As missionaries, we realized that he was just taking a personal interest in helping our less active members appreciate the blessings of church attendance. Maybe we should take him with us on lessons--as long as he can sit on his dad's lap).
On Sunday also, it started snowing, and it didn't stop until we had about 5 inches of snow. Then, on Tuesday, it started snowing again, so there's a lot of the white stuff all over. On Sunday night we were walking to a member's home for a meeting with them and we had miscalculated the distance, which made for a thirty minute walk through unshoveled dirt roads in what felt like a blizzard, every so often passing drunk men in t-shirts and jean jackets. Those of you in somewhat warmer climates (ie, anywhere else), think of me. Ah, Ukraine!
Also, before I forget, next week is Thanksgiving; first off, happy thanksgiving!, and second off, we'll be having our P-Day on Thursday (turkey day itself), so my email will be a day late again. We'll all be going to a big church building in Center to have a good homecookeed Thanksgiving meal, courtesy of Sister Davis and our senior couples. I'm pretty excited.
All right, that's it for me. Have a good week! I love you all!
--Elder Hurst
This was a fun past week. This Sunday, our Primary had their annual program, and they had us get up and sing Called to Serve with them (in Ukrainian, of course). It was a lot of fun. I love little Ukrainian kids. One little boy didn't want to sit up front without his dad, so his dad came up and sat in the little wooden chair with his son on his lap; later, the same kid had a line to say about how coming to church helps his faith grow, and after he kind of mumbled it out, he looked at the congregation and said, "Understood?!" (As missionaries, we realized that he was just taking a personal interest in helping our less active members appreciate the blessings of church attendance. Maybe we should take him with us on lessons--as long as he can sit on his dad's lap).
On Sunday also, it started snowing, and it didn't stop until we had about 5 inches of snow. Then, on Tuesday, it started snowing again, so there's a lot of the white stuff all over. On Sunday night we were walking to a member's home for a meeting with them and we had miscalculated the distance, which made for a thirty minute walk through unshoveled dirt roads in what felt like a blizzard, every so often passing drunk men in t-shirts and jean jackets. Those of you in somewhat warmer climates (ie, anywhere else), think of me. Ah, Ukraine!
Also, before I forget, next week is Thanksgiving; first off, happy thanksgiving!, and second off, we'll be having our P-Day on Thursday (turkey day itself), so my email will be a day late again. We'll all be going to a big church building in Center to have a good homecookeed Thanksgiving meal, courtesy of Sister Davis and our senior couples. I'm pretty excited.
All right, that's it for me. Have a good week! I love you all!
--Elder Hurst
Hello Again! (November 7, 2007)
Hello again everyone!
Well, we had a good week. One of the companionships in our district had a baptism this past Saturday, so we invited one of our investigators, Lilya, to come and see it. She came and brought her niece along with her, and they both enjoyed it. We plan on meeting with her this Saturday and giving her a baptismal date...we’ve set up a plan to keep in contact with her until then and to prepare her for it, so we have some good hopes about that.
This past Thursday we had the chance to go to a little selo (village, in case you speak English) outside of Kyiv called Irpin. Irpin’s a little larger than most selos, so it has a lot of apartment buildings in addition to little cottage-type houses (they aren’t as nice as they sound...). We met with a member family named the Nakrasov’s. Brother Nakrasov teaches at the militsia academy (“militsia” meaning “police;” it goes back to the Communist days—police were considered “protectors of the elite and rich,” so they organized instead a militia, or, in Ukrainian, a “militsia”). He had us take pictures of ourselves with his militsia hat and jacket on. We weren’t too reluctant.
We’re starting to see a Ukrainian winter finally...and unfortunately. I miss summer already. The temperature just dropped a good deal, leaving us in our winter coats and beanies (which we got for free from a man in a street market because he respected us coming here as missionaries). We had our first snow of the season a day or two ago; it was just a light dusting that melted pretty quick, but still...I remember when it was swelteringly hot as if it was yesterday...
All right, well, I hope you all have a good week! I love you!
--Elder Hurst
Well, we had a good week. One of the companionships in our district had a baptism this past Saturday, so we invited one of our investigators, Lilya, to come and see it. She came and brought her niece along with her, and they both enjoyed it. We plan on meeting with her this Saturday and giving her a baptismal date...we’ve set up a plan to keep in contact with her until then and to prepare her for it, so we have some good hopes about that.
This past Thursday we had the chance to go to a little selo (village, in case you speak English) outside of Kyiv called Irpin. Irpin’s a little larger than most selos, so it has a lot of apartment buildings in addition to little cottage-type houses (they aren’t as nice as they sound...). We met with a member family named the Nakrasov’s. Brother Nakrasov teaches at the militsia academy (“militsia” meaning “police;” it goes back to the Communist days—police were considered “protectors of the elite and rich,” so they organized instead a militia, or, in Ukrainian, a “militsia”). He had us take pictures of ourselves with his militsia hat and jacket on. We weren’t too reluctant.
We’re starting to see a Ukrainian winter finally...and unfortunately. I miss summer already. The temperature just dropped a good deal, leaving us in our winter coats and beanies (which we got for free from a man in a street market because he respected us coming here as missionaries). We had our first snow of the season a day or two ago; it was just a light dusting that melted pretty quick, but still...I remember when it was swelteringly hot as if it was yesterday...
All right, well, I hope you all have a good week! I love you!
--Elder Hurst
(October 31, 2007)
Hello everyone, it's Elder Hurst yet again. We've been keeping very, very busy lately. This transfer, in addition to becoming a district leader, I've also "inherited" this entire ward (there was another set of elders here also, but President pulled them out and put them elsewhere), started teaching English again on Tuesdays, and every Thursday we go to a little town called Irpin to meet with people and, hopefully, start an English class out there on Thursday evenings. This is in addition to other weekly commitments we have, which include district meetings every monday, family home evenings every monday night, meetings with the missionary correlation leader, weekly planning every Friday, church, a meeting with a part-member family every Sunday at 5, a meeting with a really cool parapalegic girl every Tuesday at 3:30, and random district-leader related meetings in center every so often. It's been pretty busy, but it's fun also. I'd rather be in a rush all the time than tracting all day long...
So, a funny thing happened to us Thursday night. We met a man named Serhiy (in russian: Sergey) who wanted to meet with us. We set up an appointment and, last Thursday, we went over and knocked on his door. Someone else answered and, after giving us a confused look, asked if we were Serhiy's friends. We answered yes, and he let us in, saying that Serhiy was running a little late and would be there soon. In a few minutes there was another knock, and a man named Vitaliy came in. Vitaliy was very friendly and spoke a little English, but we noticed when he came that everyone was wearing a suit--not too common in Ukraine when people are just lounging at home (it's pretty common to go tracting and talk to a lot of old men in their boxer shorts). Vitaliy then announced that we would "begin" without Serhiy, and he pulled out a little whiteboard on a tripod. As it turns out, Serhiy was a member of Amway, a pyramid scam that I believe was banned in America (or at least it's not as big there) but is huge in Ukraine. We spent about thirty minutes convincing them that we had absolutely no interest in joining their company, and then the next thirty minutes convincing them that we had absolutely no interest in buying their products. Vitaliy was their "leader," and so he and I had a little "showdown" of sorts about it. It wasn't quite the meeting we had expected. However, we got out of it commitment-free with a bottle of free Amway dish soap.
Last night, we had another meeting with our favorite family, the Tyltins. Sister Tyltina (in Ukraine, most last names change depending on the gender of the person--for example, Brother Tyltin, Sister Tyltina) wanted to have us over for a dinner appointment, which happens often in America but in Ukraine, this is...the first time it's happened to me. It was a lot of fun; we gave a spiritual thought, we heard a violin solo by their ten-year-old son, Yosef, and we ate varenyky, which are amazingly good little boiled noodle things filled with cheese, potatoes, or meat (hers last night had cheese). Varenyky covered with smetana (like sour cream, but good tasting) is one of my favorite foods here, along with borsch and holobtsi (which are like little meat and boiled buckwheat filled burritos, only instead of tortillas they use cabbage leaves, and their boiled in a really good sauce). Somehow I'm going to have to learn how to cook these things, or where to find them in America...
Well, that's it for me. I love you all, and have a good week!
--Elder Hurst
PS - There isn't a Halloween in Ukraine, although if there was, they'd probably celebrate it like they do every other holiday--by drinking beer and vodka and shooting off fireworks at random times at night.
PPS - In case Santa Claus gets this email too, I would love to get any of the following for Christma: MoTab CD's, a long sleeve black V-neck sweater, talks by Hugh Nibley or Leon Skausen, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pictures!, and any interesting Deseret Book-style book about the Book of Mormon or Bible (especially anything dealing with the Pearl of Great Price, or Enoch especially). Oh, and also "The House of the Lord," by James E. Talmage.
So, a funny thing happened to us Thursday night. We met a man named Serhiy (in russian: Sergey) who wanted to meet with us. We set up an appointment and, last Thursday, we went over and knocked on his door. Someone else answered and, after giving us a confused look, asked if we were Serhiy's friends. We answered yes, and he let us in, saying that Serhiy was running a little late and would be there soon. In a few minutes there was another knock, and a man named Vitaliy came in. Vitaliy was very friendly and spoke a little English, but we noticed when he came that everyone was wearing a suit--not too common in Ukraine when people are just lounging at home (it's pretty common to go tracting and talk to a lot of old men in their boxer shorts). Vitaliy then announced that we would "begin" without Serhiy, and he pulled out a little whiteboard on a tripod. As it turns out, Serhiy was a member of Amway, a pyramid scam that I believe was banned in America (or at least it's not as big there) but is huge in Ukraine. We spent about thirty minutes convincing them that we had absolutely no interest in joining their company, and then the next thirty minutes convincing them that we had absolutely no interest in buying their products. Vitaliy was their "leader," and so he and I had a little "showdown" of sorts about it. It wasn't quite the meeting we had expected. However, we got out of it commitment-free with a bottle of free Amway dish soap.
Last night, we had another meeting with our favorite family, the Tyltins. Sister Tyltina (in Ukraine, most last names change depending on the gender of the person--for example, Brother Tyltin, Sister Tyltina) wanted to have us over for a dinner appointment, which happens often in America but in Ukraine, this is...the first time it's happened to me. It was a lot of fun; we gave a spiritual thought, we heard a violin solo by their ten-year-old son, Yosef, and we ate varenyky, which are amazingly good little boiled noodle things filled with cheese, potatoes, or meat (hers last night had cheese). Varenyky covered with smetana (like sour cream, but good tasting) is one of my favorite foods here, along with borsch and holobtsi (which are like little meat and boiled buckwheat filled burritos, only instead of tortillas they use cabbage leaves, and their boiled in a really good sauce). Somehow I'm going to have to learn how to cook these things, or where to find them in America...
Well, that's it for me. I love you all, and have a good week!
--Elder Hurst
PS - There isn't a Halloween in Ukraine, although if there was, they'd probably celebrate it like they do every other holiday--by drinking beer and vodka and shooting off fireworks at random times at night.
PPS - In case Santa Claus gets this email too, I would love to get any of the following for Christma: MoTab CD's, a long sleeve black V-neck sweater, talks by Hugh Nibley or Leon Skausen, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pictures!, and any interesting Deseret Book-style book about the Book of Mormon or Bible (especially anything dealing with the Pearl of Great Price, or Enoch especially). Oh, and also "The House of the Lord," by James E. Talmage.
Zone conference was on Wednesday this month...
Hey everyone, sorry this is a day late, but Zone Conference was on Wednesday this month, so our P-Day got bumped over; we didn't hear about this until Monday. We had a really good conference, though, where we talked about the importance of scripture memorization (it's kind of a nice feeling to not only be able to memorize scriptures in Ukrainian, but to be able to remember them because you can translate them from the english in your head).
We had a really cool experience lately with a sister in our ward, Sister Tyltina. Several weeks ago, we called the Relief Society President to find someone from the ward who could come with us on a lesson with one of our investigators. She called back to say that Sister Tyltina would, although she was a little nervous about it. As it turned out, this was the first time she had ever helped missionaries on a lesson before, despite being a strong, fully active member for the past 14 years. She did really well on the lesson, and then told us the following Sunday that she felt so good doing the lesson that she decided to begin studying out of Preach My Gospel in her spare time. When she came with us on our second lesson with our investigator, she had studied the Plan of Salvation thoroughly and, when we were joined halfway through by one of our investigator’s friends, she offered a perfect recap of everything we had taught to that point, better than we ever did in the MTC when we had just barely learned them. When our next lesson—which was going to be at the Tyltin’s house—fell through, she went instead to dinner with four of her five nonmember sisters and her brother, and ended up giving away two copies of the Book of Mormon. This past Monday we had family home evening at their house, where she told us that she had received an incredible desire to do missionary work, and that she and Brother Tyltin had begun to make plans to, once their youngest son leaves on his mission, go on a mission of their own. It’s been an incredible experience to be able to see how preaching the gospel has had such a strong effect, not only on our investigator, but on everyone involved. She also told Elder Higgins and I that when the elders who first baptized her were transferred away, she had been really sad, and had set up a wall between herself and missionaries after that; but, she said, she's come to love us just as much as she's come to love her original missionaries. Her son, Yosef, is also really cool. He's about ten years old and loves being around missionaries. It's amazing what blessings have come from serving a mission!
Well, unfortunately I have to go again, but I love you all, and I'll write again next week!
--Elder Hurst
We had a really cool experience lately with a sister in our ward, Sister Tyltina. Several weeks ago, we called the Relief Society President to find someone from the ward who could come with us on a lesson with one of our investigators. She called back to say that Sister Tyltina would, although she was a little nervous about it. As it turned out, this was the first time she had ever helped missionaries on a lesson before, despite being a strong, fully active member for the past 14 years. She did really well on the lesson, and then told us the following Sunday that she felt so good doing the lesson that she decided to begin studying out of Preach My Gospel in her spare time. When she came with us on our second lesson with our investigator, she had studied the Plan of Salvation thoroughly and, when we were joined halfway through by one of our investigator’s friends, she offered a perfect recap of everything we had taught to that point, better than we ever did in the MTC when we had just barely learned them. When our next lesson—which was going to be at the Tyltin’s house—fell through, she went instead to dinner with four of her five nonmember sisters and her brother, and ended up giving away two copies of the Book of Mormon. This past Monday we had family home evening at their house, where she told us that she had received an incredible desire to do missionary work, and that she and Brother Tyltin had begun to make plans to, once their youngest son leaves on his mission, go on a mission of their own. It’s been an incredible experience to be able to see how preaching the gospel has had such a strong effect, not only on our investigator, but on everyone involved. She also told Elder Higgins and I that when the elders who first baptized her were transferred away, she had been really sad, and had set up a wall between herself and missionaries after that; but, she said, she's come to love us just as much as she's come to love her original missionaries. Her son, Yosef, is also really cool. He's about ten years old and loves being around missionaries. It's amazing what blessings have come from serving a mission!
Well, unfortunately I have to go again, but I love you all, and I'll write again next week!
--Elder Hurst
Argh! Disappointing... (October 10, 2007)
Hello again everyone; well, there's been a little disappointing news with our doctor meeting. Everything was going great until this very morning, when I called the hospital again one last time to see if there was anything else we needed to take care of and they informed me that the lady who had promised us that she would invite people to attend doesn't actually have the authority to do that, and that the council of people who do have that authority decided not to. To add to it, they had already scheduled something else in our time slot, and they never even so much as called me about any of this. It's a little...annoying, you could say, but that's allright; we may actually have other possibilities for things like this, which would be good.
Whoa, I have a lot less time left on this computer than I thought. Okay, here's my week in brief:
-We spoke with a man on Saturday who informed us that the Earth only exists for 5,100 years at a time before everything starts all over again, like a movie that's been rewound. There's a brief period in between restarts where good people live in paradise, but then everything starts all over again, exactly like it was before with everyone doing exactly what they did the last time and the time before, and etc.
-We got to watch General Conference, which was great! It's so much easier to pay attention to Conference as a missionary. We were all excited to hear about President Eyring's new assignment, and surprised but excited as well to hear about Elder Cook. By the way, Elders Holland and Nelson had really, really good talks.
-We got transfer information a little early this week; it turns out that Elder Higgins is going to be leaving and I'll be staying behind yet again. Also, our entire district besides me is going to be leaving. There's a rumor that I may be district leader. I'm still pulling for a return to junior companion (you make less phone calls that way), but whatever comes, comes.
Well, I love you all, and thanks for everything! Angie-thanks for the pictures!!! I love getting pictures from home.
Have a good week!
--Brett
Whoa, I have a lot less time left on this computer than I thought. Okay, here's my week in brief:
-We spoke with a man on Saturday who informed us that the Earth only exists for 5,100 years at a time before everything starts all over again, like a movie that's been rewound. There's a brief period in between restarts where good people live in paradise, but then everything starts all over again, exactly like it was before with everyone doing exactly what they did the last time and the time before, and etc.
-We got to watch General Conference, which was great! It's so much easier to pay attention to Conference as a missionary. We were all excited to hear about President Eyring's new assignment, and surprised but excited as well to hear about Elder Cook. By the way, Elders Holland and Nelson had really, really good talks.
-We got transfer information a little early this week; it turns out that Elder Higgins is going to be leaving and I'll be staying behind yet again. Also, our entire district besides me is going to be leaving. There's a rumor that I may be district leader. I'm still pulling for a return to junior companion (you make less phone calls that way), but whatever comes, comes.
Well, I love you all, and thanks for everything! Angie-thanks for the pictures!!! I love getting pictures from home.
Have a good week!
--Brett
A week full of mission stories... (Oct 3, 2007)
Hello again everyone! Well, this past week has certainly been an interesting one, to say the least. We've run into a great deal of interesting random incidents these past few days. My time's running a little low (as usual), so let's get started:
1. On Sunday, Elder Higgins and I were expecting a few people to come to sacrament meeting, so we went outside the church and waited on the street for them to show up. Unfortunately, none of them did, but there was a crazy drunk man who came up and, after unsuccessfully asking us for money, decided to sing us a little song made up of the lyrics (in Ukrainian) "I've got a guitar in my hands!" and the noise of him banging on a "guitar." He then informed us that it was a Beatles song.
2. I had to get my pants sewn up (my Mervyns ones), because they had, to say the least, fallen into a little disrepair. We searched around for a while to find a pants repair shop and decided to ask a lady selling beach towels. She smiled as we walked up, and I remembered that about a month ago my previous comp and I talked to her for a while, and she said she'd come to church because "there's two handsome young americans there!" She's about 50, by the way. So, realizing it's too late to pull away, I ask her if she knows of a place to repair pants. "You want to buy pants?" she asked. No, I said, I want to repair them ("repair" and "buy" sounding entirely different in Ukrainian). "Oh. You want to sell them?" No, I said again, REPAIR them. "Oh. Sell them?" NO, I want to REPAIR them. "Oh," she said. "Repair them? I do that." So, I dropped off my pants and went my way, and we came back a couple of days later. She'd repaired them quite well actually (although, interestingly, she decided to use dark blue thread on my dark brown pants...) and, oddly enough for Ukraine, wanted to give them to me free of charge. I talked her into taking 5 gryven for it. Turned out a lot better than I had thought it would.
3. Okay, this is a story I'm very proud of. I only wish I had an internet club where I could attach pictures! So, Elder Higgins and I, like we often do, were out tracting one night. The particular building we were in was really tall, had very small pidyizd's (those are the stairwells, in case you don't know), and absolutely no lights. Outside, the cloudy sky was turning to a dark twilight. We'd just finished talking to a pretty cool young man who later went on to dog us (so to speak...read on) and we were taking a few notes in our tracting notebook (where we record who actually answered their doors and who didn't, who was interested, etc.) when we heard an odd noise coming from below us. At first I dismissed it, but it got steadily louder and louder, and stranger and stranger. Soon, Elder Higgins and I were giving each other worried looks and trying to look down the staircase at what was approaching. The noise was like a dog growling and yelping, but mingled with a really heavy human-like panting and really, really heavy footsteps up the staircase. Adrenalin pumping, Higgins and I each tried to see what on earth was causing this demonic noise, but it was too dark and the thing was too far to the side for us to get a clear view. Suddenly, we heard keys being pulled out, a door being opened roughly, and then slammed shut the floor beneath where we were standing. We stood for a moment, terrified, then laughed and kept tracting, conveniently forgetting to knock on that particular door. In our tracting notebook, we made a helpful little note underneath that number stating, "POSSIBLE WEREWOLF," and ever since then if something seems odd or if something goes wrong, we blame it on the werewolf.
4. Later that same night, as we were walking home, we saw through a grove of trees what looked like a large circle of candles in a field with a bunch of littler groups of candles inside. What a strange night!
5. Our water filter had to be replaced a day or two ago, and Elder Higgins for some reason wanted to do it. Unfortunately, he forgot to put a rubber washer in place after he finished, and it ended up flooding the kitchen a little. We didn't quite make it in bed by 10:30 that night.
All right, well, that's all the time I have today. I love you all, and have a good week!
--Elder Hurst
PS - Watch out for werewolves, they're everywhere
1. On Sunday, Elder Higgins and I were expecting a few people to come to sacrament meeting, so we went outside the church and waited on the street for them to show up. Unfortunately, none of them did, but there was a crazy drunk man who came up and, after unsuccessfully asking us for money, decided to sing us a little song made up of the lyrics (in Ukrainian) "I've got a guitar in my hands!" and the noise of him banging on a "guitar." He then informed us that it was a Beatles song.
2. I had to get my pants sewn up (my Mervyns ones), because they had, to say the least, fallen into a little disrepair. We searched around for a while to find a pants repair shop and decided to ask a lady selling beach towels. She smiled as we walked up, and I remembered that about a month ago my previous comp and I talked to her for a while, and she said she'd come to church because "there's two handsome young americans there!" She's about 50, by the way. So, realizing it's too late to pull away, I ask her if she knows of a place to repair pants. "You want to buy pants?" she asked. No, I said, I want to repair them ("repair" and "buy" sounding entirely different in Ukrainian). "Oh. You want to sell them?" No, I said again, REPAIR them. "Oh. Sell them?" NO, I want to REPAIR them. "Oh," she said. "Repair them? I do that." So, I dropped off my pants and went my way, and we came back a couple of days later. She'd repaired them quite well actually (although, interestingly, she decided to use dark blue thread on my dark brown pants...) and, oddly enough for Ukraine, wanted to give them to me free of charge. I talked her into taking 5 gryven for it. Turned out a lot better than I had thought it would.
3. Okay, this is a story I'm very proud of. I only wish I had an internet club where I could attach pictures! So, Elder Higgins and I, like we often do, were out tracting one night. The particular building we were in was really tall, had very small pidyizd's (those are the stairwells, in case you don't know), and absolutely no lights. Outside, the cloudy sky was turning to a dark twilight. We'd just finished talking to a pretty cool young man who later went on to dog us (so to speak...read on) and we were taking a few notes in our tracting notebook (where we record who actually answered their doors and who didn't, who was interested, etc.) when we heard an odd noise coming from below us. At first I dismissed it, but it got steadily louder and louder, and stranger and stranger. Soon, Elder Higgins and I were giving each other worried looks and trying to look down the staircase at what was approaching. The noise was like a dog growling and yelping, but mingled with a really heavy human-like panting and really, really heavy footsteps up the staircase. Adrenalin pumping, Higgins and I each tried to see what on earth was causing this demonic noise, but it was too dark and the thing was too far to the side for us to get a clear view. Suddenly, we heard keys being pulled out, a door being opened roughly, and then slammed shut the floor beneath where we were standing. We stood for a moment, terrified, then laughed and kept tracting, conveniently forgetting to knock on that particular door. In our tracting notebook, we made a helpful little note underneath that number stating, "POSSIBLE WEREWOLF," and ever since then if something seems odd or if something goes wrong, we blame it on the werewolf.
4. Later that same night, as we were walking home, we saw through a grove of trees what looked like a large circle of candles in a field with a bunch of littler groups of candles inside. What a strange night!
5. Our water filter had to be replaced a day or two ago, and Elder Higgins for some reason wanted to do it. Unfortunately, he forgot to put a rubber washer in place after he finished, and it ended up flooding the kitchen a little. We didn't quite make it in bed by 10:30 that night.
All right, well, that's all the time I have today. I love you all, and have a good week!
--Elder Hurst
PS - Watch out for werewolves, they're everywhere
Exciting stuff's ahead
Hello again everyone! Things have been going well here in Kyiv. Once again we have two areas to work in, which means also that we have two churches to attend and a lot of time to spend on the metro. But, that's okay, because it's always better to be too busy than not busy enough.
Our main investigator, Volodymyr, has been really busy and unable to meet for a good amount of time, but we've been meeting with him when he can and he's still doing really well. He introduced us to one of his friends and testified to him about the importance of the gospel. We just need to have him find time when we can just talk about his baptismal date and schedule a few more lessons and he'll be on his way; unfortunately, it's a little harder than it sounds with his schedule right now. But, he has been offering us some interesting opportunities, especially two in particular--one of which is actually kind of funny, the other really exciting.
The funny one was when one day he met with us at his work during his lunch break. Unfortunately, as usual, it was way too short and he had to leave the room pretty often to do things, but after a minute or two, another doctor came in, a bottle of scotch in his hand (and remember...this is still only halfway through the working day). he comes in and starts to bother us about how we're not Orthodox and therefore not the true church, and then Volodymyr smilingly introduces him as his boss and friend. So, we quickly found ourselves in a situation where I fended off the slightly drunk doctor while Elder Higgins, my new companion, tried to talk to Volodymyr. It turned out to be kind of fun in a way, because I got to be really quite bold with the man, and Elder Higgins got some good language practice and in the end set up another meeting for us (the one where Volodymyr testified to his friend). So, opportunity #1: Argue with a drunken doctor.
The second and far more exciting opportunity was this: Volodymyr has a lot of friends in the Kyiv medical community, and one of them is a lady who runs a hospital with a large meeting hall for conferences and the like. Somehow, Volodymyr convinced her to let us use the hall sometime for a seminar in front of many of Kyiv's doctors about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. We have this planned for October 11 (which just happens to be my year mark also...how weird is that?) at 3 in the afternoon, and we will have our mission president, President Davis, speaking with us also, which shows how great of an opportunity this really is. Our bishop here is a special events organizer for Mary Kaye, and he does things like this for a living (though on a larger scale...he showed us a picture of him hosting an event in front of 7,500 people), so we've enlisted him into our planning as well. It's been a lot of fun working out the logistics and getting everything scheduled out how it should be, even though at times it's very, very stressful.
We had another meeting earlier this week where we were told we'd be speaking to a group of university students about America, with a short spiritual thought at the end. It turned out to be us speaking to a group of roudy junior high aged kids about America, with a lack of anything spiritual whatsoever. The headmaster of the school decided to tell us on the walk to the classroom that we couldn't do any sort of spiritual thought at all. That was information that may have been more helpful had he told us it earlier.
Other than that, things are going well here. It's cooling down a lot, and it's starting to rain a lot too, which is too bad. I miss summer already, and there's just a little bit of a wait until the next one.
All right, well, I love you all, and have a good week!
--Brett
Our main investigator, Volodymyr, has been really busy and unable to meet for a good amount of time, but we've been meeting with him when he can and he's still doing really well. He introduced us to one of his friends and testified to him about the importance of the gospel. We just need to have him find time when we can just talk about his baptismal date and schedule a few more lessons and he'll be on his way; unfortunately, it's a little harder than it sounds with his schedule right now. But, he has been offering us some interesting opportunities, especially two in particular--one of which is actually kind of funny, the other really exciting.
The funny one was when one day he met with us at his work during his lunch break. Unfortunately, as usual, it was way too short and he had to leave the room pretty often to do things, but after a minute or two, another doctor came in, a bottle of scotch in his hand (and remember...this is still only halfway through the working day). he comes in and starts to bother us about how we're not Orthodox and therefore not the true church, and then Volodymyr smilingly introduces him as his boss and friend. So, we quickly found ourselves in a situation where I fended off the slightly drunk doctor while Elder Higgins, my new companion, tried to talk to Volodymyr. It turned out to be kind of fun in a way, because I got to be really quite bold with the man, and Elder Higgins got some good language practice and in the end set up another meeting for us (the one where Volodymyr testified to his friend). So, opportunity #1: Argue with a drunken doctor.
The second and far more exciting opportunity was this: Volodymyr has a lot of friends in the Kyiv medical community, and one of them is a lady who runs a hospital with a large meeting hall for conferences and the like. Somehow, Volodymyr convinced her to let us use the hall sometime for a seminar in front of many of Kyiv's doctors about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. We have this planned for October 11 (which just happens to be my year mark also...how weird is that?) at 3 in the afternoon, and we will have our mission president, President Davis, speaking with us also, which shows how great of an opportunity this really is. Our bishop here is a special events organizer for Mary Kaye, and he does things like this for a living (though on a larger scale...he showed us a picture of him hosting an event in front of 7,500 people), so we've enlisted him into our planning as well. It's been a lot of fun working out the logistics and getting everything scheduled out how it should be, even though at times it's very, very stressful.
We had another meeting earlier this week where we were told we'd be speaking to a group of university students about America, with a short spiritual thought at the end. It turned out to be us speaking to a group of roudy junior high aged kids about America, with a lack of anything spiritual whatsoever. The headmaster of the school decided to tell us on the walk to the classroom that we couldn't do any sort of spiritual thought at all. That was information that may have been more helpful had he told us it earlier.
Other than that, things are going well here. It's cooling down a lot, and it's starting to rain a lot too, which is too bad. I miss summer already, and there's just a little bit of a wait until the next one.
All right, well, I love you all, and have a good week!
--Brett
(Editorial Comment)
Just so you know, Elder Crunch is not allowed to read blogs, including this one, while the harvest is on. So if you want to direct a comment to him, you should use e-mail. Otherwise he won't actually get it until October of 2008.
Here is where Elder Crunch is currently stationed (in NW Kiev, near the Nyvky Metro stop):
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Here is where Elder Crunch is currently stationed (in NW Kiev, near the Nyvky Metro stop):
View Larger Map
Another exciting week! (September 19, 2007)
Hello again everyone!
Well, this was an interesting week. I can't remember if I mentioned this last time or not, but our investigator's dad died (Volodymyr's dad), so because he's been busy taking care of that, we've been unable to teach him like we'd wanted to, which means his baptismal date will, unfortunately, have to be pushed back. However, he's still doing well and everything's still going great with him, so I have no doubt that he will be baptised, it'll only be a week or two later than we'd hoped.
So an interesting thing happened on a street car the other day. We had just finished our district meeting and were going to district lunch, and the restaurant we wanted to eat at was a little ways away. We all got on a street car (or tramvay, pronounced "tram-vye") and for the most part spread out, as usual, though two elders--Elder Campbell and Elder Ledbetter--stood by the door. After we got on, a group of four gypsies followed us quickly and stood in the doorway also. One of them stumbled a little, and before he knew it Elder Campbell realized the man had tossed his jacket over his (Elder Campbell's) shoulder bag and was rumaging through it underneath! Elder Campbell pulled his bag away and turned aside, and Elder Ledbetter--being a former track/football player, and large in stature--saw what happened and started yelling at the gypsies. Before we knew it, almost everyone on the tramvay was yelling at them, and they beat a hasty retreat off empty handed. It was...an interesting experience. This is the first time for any of us that this has happened; in fact, I've only heard of maybe one or two other similar cases happening to missionaries here. So, the thing to remember--always keep a close eye on your things when on public transportation.
Well, that's all the excitement I've got time to write about today. I love you all, and I hope everyone has a good week!
Love,
--Elder Brett
Well, this was an interesting week. I can't remember if I mentioned this last time or not, but our investigator's dad died (Volodymyr's dad), so because he's been busy taking care of that, we've been unable to teach him like we'd wanted to, which means his baptismal date will, unfortunately, have to be pushed back. However, he's still doing well and everything's still going great with him, so I have no doubt that he will be baptised, it'll only be a week or two later than we'd hoped.
So an interesting thing happened on a street car the other day. We had just finished our district meeting and were going to district lunch, and the restaurant we wanted to eat at was a little ways away. We all got on a street car (or tramvay, pronounced "tram-vye") and for the most part spread out, as usual, though two elders--Elder Campbell and Elder Ledbetter--stood by the door. After we got on, a group of four gypsies followed us quickly and stood in the doorway also. One of them stumbled a little, and before he knew it Elder Campbell realized the man had tossed his jacket over his (Elder Campbell's) shoulder bag and was rumaging through it underneath! Elder Campbell pulled his bag away and turned aside, and Elder Ledbetter--being a former track/football player, and large in stature--saw what happened and started yelling at the gypsies. Before we knew it, almost everyone on the tramvay was yelling at them, and they beat a hasty retreat off empty handed. It was...an interesting experience. This is the first time for any of us that this has happened; in fact, I've only heard of maybe one or two other similar cases happening to missionaries here. So, the thing to remember--always keep a close eye on your things when on public transportation.
Well, that's all the excitement I've got time to write about today. I love you all, and I hope everyone has a good week!
Love,
--Elder Brett
Well, I'm a father (Sept 12, 2007)
Hello again everyone! Well, I'm officially a trainer now--my son's name is Elder Higgins. It's been a little difficult (especially since on Sunday I got sicker than I've been so far my entire mission), but it's really cool to see how well I can understand people when I don't have a senior companion crutch to lean on. The other day I had a conversation with a man about Jerusalem, the crusades, World War ii, and Ukrainian history, all in Ukrainian on my part and Russian on his, without ever really missing a beat. It's amazing to me to think that I can actually speak with people about most anything I want (at least in a round-a-bout way) in a language I didn't know existed a little more than a year ago, and then understand them when they answer in an entirely different language back! I've been working on my Russian a bit lately also, but there's still a ways to go with that.
So here's something strange--I have less than a month until my year mark...time passes really quickly. It still feels like I just started the transfer before this last one...thankfully I've got Elder Higgins here, because the first transfer always feels like it takes forever.
Well, we have another meeting with Volodymyr tonight, which we're excited for. We haven't been able to meet for a while because his dad just passed away, but he said he wants to meet tonight. We're looking forward to it; the only problem is, we'll probably have to push his date back a week or two because we haven't been able to meet more often. But, he's still right on track towards baptism, so everything should be fine!
I love you all, and wish me luck this week!
--Elder Brett
So here's something strange--I have less than a month until my year mark...time passes really quickly. It still feels like I just started the transfer before this last one...thankfully I've got Elder Higgins here, because the first transfer always feels like it takes forever.
Well, we have another meeting with Volodymyr tonight, which we're excited for. We haven't been able to meet for a while because his dad just passed away, but he said he wants to meet tonight. We're looking forward to it; the only problem is, we'll probably have to push his date back a week or two because we haven't been able to meet more often. But, he's still right on track towards baptism, so everything should be fine!
I love you all, and wish me luck this week!
--Elder Brett
Volodymyr!! (Sept 5, 2007)
Hello again everyone, I just wanted to start out by saying that today I have two very exciting bits of news:
1. Our favorite investigator, Volodymyr, has a baptismal date! On the 22 of September (the day of the big race, isn't it?) he will be baptized. He is pretty much the most amazing investigator of my mission. We found him literally through the promptings of the spirit. We were out contacting one day and after arguing with a man for a long time about the bible and the book of mormon, I felt completely without the Spirit and just angry. I asked Elder Lewis if we could go somewhere and say a quick prayer for the spirit again, so we went into a dark apartment building and offered a prayer. As we left I felt very strongly we should go to one certain intersection I'd seen on a map. In the end, we couldn't quite find it, so we went home feeling discouraged. A few days later we wanted to go tracting, and all of a sudden the prompting came again very strongly to go to that intersection. This time we had a map with us and we found it, only to find that absolutely no one wanted to listen to us. Again, we felt discouraged, but we decided to do one more stairwell. As we were walking up the stairs (we always start at the top and work down), we ran into Volodymyr as he was just coming home from the grocery store. We helped him carry his bags into his house and had a lesson with him that we could only describe later as being like something in a seminary video. He then invited us to meet his friends at work (he's a doctor and a surgeon), so we went to a birthday party his friends threw him at work. We were a little worried after the party, seeing as he spent much of the time trying to get us to drink cognac (we settled instead for something like pickle juice...not sure which would have been worse...), and kept calling us "his American friends" (not usually a good sign; some people like missionaries just because we're American, not because of religious reasons). We went home confused and worried. We decided to have one more meeting, just to see where he's at. And, again, the meeting was like a seminary video. After one more such amazing lesson, Volodymyr now has a date for the 22nd! We've also had to give him 3 different Books of Mormon because he keeps giving his away to his family and friends. He is, as missionaries like to say, GOLDEN! The only problems now: he hasn't heard Word of Wisdom yet (he likes his cognac), and his wife is strongly Orthodox.
2. It's transfers again, and I'M TRAINING! Aaaah! It's exciting, but mildly terrifying as well. This means that my next companion will be straight out of the MTC, with the 20-word vocab that comes with it. Hopefully, he'll have the work ethic of the MTC still with him. (It's gonna be fun though; I get to have a "son" in the mission, as we missionaries would say...so Renee and Quinn, I'm gonna be a dad too!)
Well, that's my week. Wish me luck and pray for me to train well!
--Elder Brett
1. Our favorite investigator, Volodymyr, has a baptismal date! On the 22 of September (the day of the big race, isn't it?) he will be baptized. He is pretty much the most amazing investigator of my mission. We found him literally through the promptings of the spirit. We were out contacting one day and after arguing with a man for a long time about the bible and the book of mormon, I felt completely without the Spirit and just angry. I asked Elder Lewis if we could go somewhere and say a quick prayer for the spirit again, so we went into a dark apartment building and offered a prayer. As we left I felt very strongly we should go to one certain intersection I'd seen on a map. In the end, we couldn't quite find it, so we went home feeling discouraged. A few days later we wanted to go tracting, and all of a sudden the prompting came again very strongly to go to that intersection. This time we had a map with us and we found it, only to find that absolutely no one wanted to listen to us. Again, we felt discouraged, but we decided to do one more stairwell. As we were walking up the stairs (we always start at the top and work down), we ran into Volodymyr as he was just coming home from the grocery store. We helped him carry his bags into his house and had a lesson with him that we could only describe later as being like something in a seminary video. He then invited us to meet his friends at work (he's a doctor and a surgeon), so we went to a birthday party his friends threw him at work. We were a little worried after the party, seeing as he spent much of the time trying to get us to drink cognac (we settled instead for something like pickle juice...not sure which would have been worse...), and kept calling us "his American friends" (not usually a good sign; some people like missionaries just because we're American, not because of religious reasons). We went home confused and worried. We decided to have one more meeting, just to see where he's at. And, again, the meeting was like a seminary video. After one more such amazing lesson, Volodymyr now has a date for the 22nd! We've also had to give him 3 different Books of Mormon because he keeps giving his away to his family and friends. He is, as missionaries like to say, GOLDEN! The only problems now: he hasn't heard Word of Wisdom yet (he likes his cognac), and his wife is strongly Orthodox.
2. It's transfers again, and I'M TRAINING! Aaaah! It's exciting, but mildly terrifying as well. This means that my next companion will be straight out of the MTC, with the 20-word vocab that comes with it. Hopefully, he'll have the work ethic of the MTC still with him. (It's gonna be fun though; I get to have a "son" in the mission, as we missionaries would say...so Renee and Quinn, I'm gonna be a dad too!)
Well, that's my week. Wish me luck and pray for me to train well!
--Elder Brett
Weekly report - 29 August 2007
Hello again everyone! (By the way, the "weekly report" thing is what I write to President Davis every week in my president's letter...just giving you a taste of mission life)
This was a good week. We had a little bit of exciting news from the First Presidency of the Church. Worldwide, they have changed the key indicators (this might interest Adam more than others of you...but it's earth-shaking for a missionary like me) so there are only 6: Baptisms, Confirmations, Investigators with a Baptismal Date, Investigators at Sacrament Meeting, Lessons Taught with a Member Present, and Daily Contacts (the last one's just something our mission decided to have). This is a reduction from 11 key indicators. I'm not sure if this is boring or not, but for us, like I said, it's amazing.
We've been doing really well. We actually led the mission recently in our numbers, which was kind of a cool feeling to have. We also had a really good meeting in one of our wards where we had a fun skit ("Thirsty for the Water of Life," which involved me having water dumped on me and Elder Lewis wearing a toilet-paper Arab headress and riding a "camel").
Well, as usual, I've run out of time way too fast. I love you all, I miss my nieces and nephews, and I hope everyone has a great week!
Love,
--Elder Brett
ps. - Have fun at school! Hahaha!
This was a good week. We had a little bit of exciting news from the First Presidency of the Church. Worldwide, they have changed the key indicators (this might interest Adam more than others of you...but it's earth-shaking for a missionary like me) so there are only 6: Baptisms, Confirmations, Investigators with a Baptismal Date, Investigators at Sacrament Meeting, Lessons Taught with a Member Present, and Daily Contacts (the last one's just something our mission decided to have). This is a reduction from 11 key indicators. I'm not sure if this is boring or not, but for us, like I said, it's amazing.
We've been doing really well. We actually led the mission recently in our numbers, which was kind of a cool feeling to have. We also had a really good meeting in one of our wards where we had a fun skit ("Thirsty for the Water of Life," which involved me having water dumped on me and Elder Lewis wearing a toilet-paper Arab headress and riding a "camel").
Well, as usual, I've run out of time way too fast. I love you all, I miss my nieces and nephews, and I hope everyone has a great week!
Love,
--Elder Brett
ps. - Have fun at school! Hahaha!
Mongolians, Iranians, Ukrainian politics, and I (August 22, 2007)
Hello again everyone!
Well, this has been a good week. Here's some highlights:
There were a few elders who went home in the middle of the transfer, and in order to get that all settled, some of them went into threesomes with other missionaries who were staying. We got a phone call last Tuesday saying that we'd be having an overnight threesome on Thursday(of last week). The elder we had with us was Elder Dorjsuren. You may notice that name's a little different sounding that most; that's because Elder Dorjsuren's from Mongolia. Actually, there's usually at least a few Mongolian missionaries here in our mission. Elder Dorjsuren spoke near-perfect English and is really cool, it was a lot of fun to serve with him (especially when our district leader called, and Elder Dorjsuren answered the phone in Mongolian...and our district leader, being half native american, talked back in Navajo).
I also had a chance to speak with someone from Iran the other day. His name is Mohsen, and he was really cool too. He taught me a few Iranian words ("hello" is "salam," "goodbye" is "khoda khafaz," and "my name is..." is "es meh man...", just in case you need a few Iranian phrases). Apparently, almost everyone in Iran knows English pretty well. My companion, who's not always the most well-informed person, said, "I'd like to visit Iran sometime. Are there cool things to see?" Mohsen kind of smiled and said, "This might not be the best time for you to visit Iran." From what I've heard, I'd probably side with Mohsen on this one.
Later that same night, I had a chance to give a "soft" baptismal commitment (that's where you ask, "When you know that these things are true, will you get baptized?" as opposed to, "Will you get baptized on the 15th of September?"), and it went fantastically. I was on exchanges that day with an elder who didn't really know what to do, so I basically taught the entire lesson myself, gave the commitment, testified, etc. The Spirit was really strong, especially when we taught about Joseph Smith. There's really power in Joseph Smith's account of the First Vision.
All in all, it's been a good week. We've been really busy, but it's been a good kind of busy. Have a good week yourselves, and I'll write again next Wednesday!
--Brett
Well, this has been a good week. Here's some highlights:
There were a few elders who went home in the middle of the transfer, and in order to get that all settled, some of them went into threesomes with other missionaries who were staying. We got a phone call last Tuesday saying that we'd be having an overnight threesome on Thursday(of last week). The elder we had with us was Elder Dorjsuren. You may notice that name's a little different sounding that most; that's because Elder Dorjsuren's from Mongolia. Actually, there's usually at least a few Mongolian missionaries here in our mission. Elder Dorjsuren spoke near-perfect English and is really cool, it was a lot of fun to serve with him (especially when our district leader called, and Elder Dorjsuren answered the phone in Mongolian...and our district leader, being half native american, talked back in Navajo).
I also had a chance to speak with someone from Iran the other day. His name is Mohsen, and he was really cool too. He taught me a few Iranian words ("hello" is "salam," "goodbye" is "khoda khafaz," and "my name is..." is "es meh man...", just in case you need a few Iranian phrases). Apparently, almost everyone in Iran knows English pretty well. My companion, who's not always the most well-informed person, said, "I'd like to visit Iran sometime. Are there cool things to see?" Mohsen kind of smiled and said, "This might not be the best time for you to visit Iran." From what I've heard, I'd probably side with Mohsen on this one.
Later that same night, I had a chance to give a "soft" baptismal commitment (that's where you ask, "When you know that these things are true, will you get baptized?" as opposed to, "Will you get baptized on the 15th of September?"), and it went fantastically. I was on exchanges that day with an elder who didn't really know what to do, so I basically taught the entire lesson myself, gave the commitment, testified, etc. The Spirit was really strong, especially when we taught about Joseph Smith. There's really power in Joseph Smith's account of the First Vision.
All in all, it's been a good week. We've been really busy, but it's been a good kind of busy. Have a good week yourselves, and I'll write again next Wednesday!
--Brett
Hello again from Eastern Europe (August 15, 2007)
Hello again everyone!
Well, now that everything’s working well again, I actually don’t have much time to write, so I’ll go quick and try to fit as much as I can.
First of all, I’m really jealous of that trip, Mom! That’s sounds great. Why didn’t they do that when I was younger? I really want to go to Temple Square again when I get back and get to see all those things (and then go through the Salt Lake temple...).
Second, I think Steve’s going to go to the Russia Yekaterinburg mission.
All right, so this is kind of a crazy transfer. First of all, I’m cosenior, so there’s a lot more responsibility on me already. Then, our area turns out to be two areas that there weren’t enough missionaries to fill. Finally, about a week ago, we learn that another group of missionaries in our district got really sick and had to get sent home, so their area got tacked onto ours, giving us a total of THREE areas to work. All three are right in the center or so of Kyiv, where a lot of people live, and all three were busy in and of themselves; together, they keep us really quite busy.
We have a few people with baptismal dates: Pavlo and Lilia had one for last Saturday, but they’ve been really busy and weren’t prepared so it’s been pushed back. They have some word of wisdom problems, and Pavlo has this habit of looking oup anti-mormon websites. Then, we have Iryna, who is basically ready to be baptized any time now (our lessons are mostly us bringing up a topic, and then her teaching her mom that topic...) except she’s living with her boyfriend and they’re not getting married until October. However, she planned it out so that at the very soonest possible day after the marriage she will be baptized.
We also have an investigator named Volodymyr who’s really cool. He’s a funny, very social surgeon who loves meeting with us (he also loves drinking cognac, which is a bit of an issue, but it’ll get worked out).
Well, I need to go. I love you all, and I hope you all have a good week!
--Elder Hurst
Well, now that everything’s working well again, I actually don’t have much time to write, so I’ll go quick and try to fit as much as I can.
First of all, I’m really jealous of that trip, Mom! That’s sounds great. Why didn’t they do that when I was younger? I really want to go to Temple Square again when I get back and get to see all those things (and then go through the Salt Lake temple...).
Second, I think Steve’s going to go to the Russia Yekaterinburg mission.
All right, so this is kind of a crazy transfer. First of all, I’m cosenior, so there’s a lot more responsibility on me already. Then, our area turns out to be two areas that there weren’t enough missionaries to fill. Finally, about a week ago, we learn that another group of missionaries in our district got really sick and had to get sent home, so their area got tacked onto ours, giving us a total of THREE areas to work. All three are right in the center or so of Kyiv, where a lot of people live, and all three were busy in and of themselves; together, they keep us really quite busy.
We have a few people with baptismal dates: Pavlo and Lilia had one for last Saturday, but they’ve been really busy and weren’t prepared so it’s been pushed back. They have some word of wisdom problems, and Pavlo has this habit of looking oup anti-mormon websites. Then, we have Iryna, who is basically ready to be baptized any time now (our lessons are mostly us bringing up a topic, and then her teaching her mom that topic...) except she’s living with her boyfriend and they’re not getting married until October. However, she planned it out so that at the very soonest possible day after the marriage she will be baptized.
We also have an investigator named Volodymyr who’s really cool. He’s a funny, very social surgeon who loves meeting with us (he also loves drinking cognac, which is a bit of an issue, but it’ll get worked out).
Well, I need to go. I love you all, and I hope you all have a good week!
--Elder Hurst
August 8, 2007
Well, I had just spent about 20 minutes writing an email about my area, our investigators, the work in general, and some interesting things from this week, and then as I hit the "send" button, myldsmail conveniently made an error and erased my message, leaving me with no good letter to send home and no time to try write a new one. So, I promise I did things this week, I'm working hard, and I'm safe and healthy. I'll have to write more next week.
--Elder Hurst
PS - Renee and Quinn, here's the most common Ukrainian girls names: Katya, Lena, Sasha (also for guys), Svitlana (Svyetlana in Russian) and Olya. Or, if you want, there's always Snezhana...
--Elder Hurst
PS - Renee and Quinn, here's the most common Ukrainian girls names: Katya, Lena, Sasha (also for guys), Svitlana (Svyetlana in Russian) and Olya. Or, if you want, there's always Snezhana...
Surprise transfer (August 1, 2007)
Hello again everyone, something interesting happened this week. Well, actually, the story starts about a month ago. I had my monthly interview with President, and he told me that this coming transfer I would either be a senior companion, or I'd be co-senior with Elder Kauffman from my MTC group. Several weeks go by, and we get our Pack to Leave information, which says who in our district is staying, and who needs to pack their bags. This information comes about a week before transfers in order to give everyone time to pack. Basically, it said this: Elder Miles (my old companion): Pack to Leave. Elder Kauffman: Pack to Leave, but only to the apartment where I was living. Elder Hurst: Stay put.
After hearing that, and also talking to our Zone Leaders and getting it confirmed, Elder Kauffman and I were really excited to be getting to serve together. We were in the same MTC district, and we'd been in the same district in Kharkivsky for two transfers, and we were getting to be good friends and were excited to serve together. So, the day of transfers comes. The Pack to Leave info had just said for Elder Kauffman to come to my apartment, so he did that and started unpacking. Elder Kauffman's old companion and my old companion would go to the office together to get their new companions, so Elder Kauffman and I were setting up the aparment and planning out our day. Suddenly, we get a phone call from the mission office asking where I was. After a very confusing series of phone calls over the next 10 minutes, we pieced together that sometime a day or two before transfer day, the transfers got changed again, but NO ONE TOLD ME. So, I had to pack my bags in about 20 minutes, race to the office, and go to an entirely new area with just about no forewarning. So, I'm still in Kyiv, but I'm on Right Bank now (the left side of the Dniper river), in an area called Nyvky (NEEV-kee) and Shevchenkevsky (Shev-CHENK-uv-skee) (we're working both). I'm with Elder Lewis, my old MTC companion, who's...just about like he was in the MTC. We'll see how this one goes...The good news is, the work is going really well here, there's already a few investigators with baptismal dates and several more that could have them soon. Plus, people are a lot more receptive here than in any of my other areas. It'll be a good transfer. I just I had some warning about it.
All right, have a good week, and wish me luck in Nyvky!
--Elder Brett
PS- So Renee and Quinn--you're moving to Arizona? That's cool...well...not temperature-wise, but you know what I mean. I'm excited to find out about my second mission-born nephew/niece. This feels like the beginning of the book of Exodus; only instead of a pharoah who knew not Joseph, it's nieces and nephews who know not Uncle Brett. And...that's a good sign of how long I've been on a mission.
After hearing that, and also talking to our Zone Leaders and getting it confirmed, Elder Kauffman and I were really excited to be getting to serve together. We were in the same MTC district, and we'd been in the same district in Kharkivsky for two transfers, and we were getting to be good friends and were excited to serve together. So, the day of transfers comes. The Pack to Leave info had just said for Elder Kauffman to come to my apartment, so he did that and started unpacking. Elder Kauffman's old companion and my old companion would go to the office together to get their new companions, so Elder Kauffman and I were setting up the aparment and planning out our day. Suddenly, we get a phone call from the mission office asking where I was. After a very confusing series of phone calls over the next 10 minutes, we pieced together that sometime a day or two before transfer day, the transfers got changed again, but NO ONE TOLD ME. So, I had to pack my bags in about 20 minutes, race to the office, and go to an entirely new area with just about no forewarning. So, I'm still in Kyiv, but I'm on Right Bank now (the left side of the Dniper river), in an area called Nyvky (NEEV-kee) and Shevchenkevsky (Shev-CHENK-uv-skee) (we're working both). I'm with Elder Lewis, my old MTC companion, who's...just about like he was in the MTC. We'll see how this one goes...The good news is, the work is going really well here, there's already a few investigators with baptismal dates and several more that could have them soon. Plus, people are a lot more receptive here than in any of my other areas. It'll be a good transfer. I just I had some warning about it.
All right, have a good week, and wish me luck in Nyvky!
--Elder Brett
PS- So Renee and Quinn--you're moving to Arizona? That's cool...well...not temperature-wise, but you know what I mean. I'm excited to find out about my second mission-born nephew/niece. This feels like the beginning of the book of Exodus; only instead of a pharoah who knew not Joseph, it's nieces and nephews who know not Uncle Brett. And...that's a good sign of how long I've been on a mission.
Transfers again (July 25, 2007)
Well, it's transfers time again. Six weeks really seemed like a long time before my mission...now it's pretty quick. Well, I'm staying put in Kharkivsky, which will make this my third transfer here, and will make this the longest I've stayed in one area so far (including the MTC). But, as has become usual for me, I'll be getting a new companion (aside from the MTC and my trainer, I haven't had a companion for more than one transfer). But, the good news is I already know who my comp's gonna be--Elder Kauffman, my friend from my MTC group. I'm really looking forward to it. We've been in the same district for two transfers already, and we've been hoping that somehow we'd get put together. It should be a lot of fun. Plus, he's a harder worker than any of my companions up to this point so far, so that'll be a nice change. (My list of companions so far is sort of a mission joke).
Well, hopefully once Elder Kauffman and I get together, we can turn our area around. The past two transfers have been really tough here, and this last transfer has basically consisted of me trying to do the work of two while my companion talked about girls and school and how much money he's going to make in his future career (oral surgery...) and did little else. Not the ideal working situation, but it's also sort of the story of my mission.
Well, aside from that, the only exciting news I have is that I bought a new pair of shoes to replace my old pair. I wish I'd taken a picture of the old ones...I'll have to send a picture next week. It's pretty impressive to me. The right shoe has had its heel worn from the outside corner all the way down, and the inside had the slight tendency to make my heel bleed. As a result I can now safely advise any future missionaries: Rockports are not good mission shoes. Ecco's are the way to go.
Well, that's all that's been exciting for me this week. As today is Elder Miles's last P-Day in this area, we're going to be running around to all the different spots he's wanted to go to before he left, so it should be a pretty busy day. I love you all, I love the pictures of the family (could I get copies of them on paper? thanks! that would be fantastic), and I love all your emails!
--Elder Brett
PS - We can get emails from whoever wants to send them, but we can only send emails to family and the mission office, so Mom, if you want to tell Shawn Soelberg that he could write me regular letters that'd probably be best. Thanks!
PPS - Good luck in surgery on Monday Angie!
Well, hopefully once Elder Kauffman and I get together, we can turn our area around. The past two transfers have been really tough here, and this last transfer has basically consisted of me trying to do the work of two while my companion talked about girls and school and how much money he's going to make in his future career (oral surgery...) and did little else. Not the ideal working situation, but it's also sort of the story of my mission.
Well, aside from that, the only exciting news I have is that I bought a new pair of shoes to replace my old pair. I wish I'd taken a picture of the old ones...I'll have to send a picture next week. It's pretty impressive to me. The right shoe has had its heel worn from the outside corner all the way down, and the inside had the slight tendency to make my heel bleed. As a result I can now safely advise any future missionaries: Rockports are not good mission shoes. Ecco's are the way to go.
Well, that's all that's been exciting for me this week. As today is Elder Miles's last P-Day in this area, we're going to be running around to all the different spots he's wanted to go to before he left, so it should be a pretty busy day. I love you all, I love the pictures of the family (could I get copies of them on paper? thanks! that would be fantastic), and I love all your emails!
--Elder Brett
PS - We can get emails from whoever wants to send them, but we can only send emails to family and the mission office, so Mom, if you want to tell Shawn Soelberg that he could write me regular letters that'd probably be best. Thanks!
PPS - Good luck in surgery on Monday Angie!
It's really, really hot... (July 18, 2007)
Hello again all, it's that time of week again. Well, things are going well, except it's really hot again outside. We have a mission standard of 3-4 hours of finding a day, and our area doesn't have that good of tracting (most of the apartment buildings have electronic locks that we can't get into), so we spend 3 to 4 hours every day at least (sometimes quite a bit more) out in the sun walking around. I really wonder sometimes how far I've walked in this area, because I bet it's an incredible amount. I know this area far better than any other I've had, mostly because I've been up and down almost every street here a LOT. But, thankfully, we've been able to meet with several members of our ward here, so we should be able to get some work going with them. There's a really, really cool newlywed family here named the Russo family that we met with on Sunday. Brother Russo is 24, I think, and he's served in the Ukrainian navy for 3 years and been on a mission to Latvia. He and his wife, Anna, have been married for about 10 months, and they'll be having a kid here soon. They invited us to go on a picnic with them and another newlywed couple from the ward, which would be a lot of fun; they were really excited to work with the missionaries, so we're expecting good things from this.
So, I'm not sure how many of you receive the Church News (or, if you do get it, how many of you read it...I know I certainly didn't before my mission), but in the most recent edition there's an article about the Kyiv Temple groundbreaking, and included is a picture of one of the families from my area! There's also a picture of Alexander Manzhos, a Ukrainian member of the quorum of the Seventy, and Viktor Kanchenko, our stake president. The picture of the Vashenko family is really cool. They're pretty much the perfect family.
On Saturday, we had a "frank talk" lesson with our eternal investigator family. In case you don't know what a frank talk lesson is, it's where we sit down with them and see whether they're really interested in our message, or not. This time was really hard because I really like this family. They're really nice and funny, and they love missionaries, but the problem is, they just don't care about the gospel. She's a happy seventh-day adventist, and he's a happy agnostic, and they're both content that "all roads lead to God," and that one should find the religion most comfortable for their own, personal wants. They compared it to the 12 tribes of Israel, saying that the different churches are like different tribes ("Ah, but didn't all the tribes follow Moses and Joshua and all the other prophets, together?"), they said that all churches were the same ("That's what prompted Joseph Smith to pray in the first place!") and that the Book of Mormon was just like any other religious book. This last one is one that we've heard a lot recently. The wonderful thing about the Book of Mormon is that it's worth more than the sum of its parts. If one merely reads it, they'll find a nice book with scriptural lessons and doctrines similar to the Bible, though in a different location, with different people, and sometimes explained more than is found in the Bible. But that's not the most important part! The most important part is what's written in Moroni 10:3-5, that after we have received the Book of Mormon and read in it, we can pray directly to our Father in Heaven and ask if it's true, and then receive a personal, private witness direct to us through the Holy Ghost that it is, indeed, true. That is what makes the Book of Mormon different than any other religious book--it's true, and God wants us all to know for ourselves that it's true.
Well, I've got to get going again, time waits for no one, and as usual, I've been long-winded. I love you all, I'm jealous of all your various vacations (the dilophosaurus footprint was really cool Mom, and I'm impressed by your cliff jumping escapades). Have a good week everyone!
--Elder Brett
So, I'm not sure how many of you receive the Church News (or, if you do get it, how many of you read it...I know I certainly didn't before my mission), but in the most recent edition there's an article about the Kyiv Temple groundbreaking, and included is a picture of one of the families from my area! There's also a picture of Alexander Manzhos, a Ukrainian member of the quorum of the Seventy, and Viktor Kanchenko, our stake president. The picture of the Vashenko family is really cool. They're pretty much the perfect family.
On Saturday, we had a "frank talk" lesson with our eternal investigator family. In case you don't know what a frank talk lesson is, it's where we sit down with them and see whether they're really interested in our message, or not. This time was really hard because I really like this family. They're really nice and funny, and they love missionaries, but the problem is, they just don't care about the gospel. She's a happy seventh-day adventist, and he's a happy agnostic, and they're both content that "all roads lead to God," and that one should find the religion most comfortable for their own, personal wants. They compared it to the 12 tribes of Israel, saying that the different churches are like different tribes ("Ah, but didn't all the tribes follow Moses and Joshua and all the other prophets, together?"), they said that all churches were the same ("That's what prompted Joseph Smith to pray in the first place!") and that the Book of Mormon was just like any other religious book. This last one is one that we've heard a lot recently. The wonderful thing about the Book of Mormon is that it's worth more than the sum of its parts. If one merely reads it, they'll find a nice book with scriptural lessons and doctrines similar to the Bible, though in a different location, with different people, and sometimes explained more than is found in the Bible. But that's not the most important part! The most important part is what's written in Moroni 10:3-5, that after we have received the Book of Mormon and read in it, we can pray directly to our Father in Heaven and ask if it's true, and then receive a personal, private witness direct to us through the Holy Ghost that it is, indeed, true. That is what makes the Book of Mormon different than any other religious book--it's true, and God wants us all to know for ourselves that it's true.
Well, I've got to get going again, time waits for no one, and as usual, I've been long-winded. I love you all, I'm jealous of all your various vacations (the dilophosaurus footprint was really cool Mom, and I'm impressed by your cliff jumping escapades). Have a good week everyone!
--Elder Brett
I'm a nine-month missionary... (July 11, 2007)
Hello again all! I hope everyone had a good week. Ours was pretty good, although, as usual, it could be better. Our area is pretty cold when it comes to investigators (we have one promising potential investigator we're meeting with on Friday, and one "eternal investigator" family...and that's it). We spend most of our days on the street contacting or in the buildings tracting while we wait to meet with the members in our ward and do work with them (which, as I'm sure Adam will tell you, is the best way to do missionary work--when a member gives a friend as a referral, then the member is able to 1. Help bear testimony during lessons, 2. Use their home as a great place to meet and have lessons, 3. Answer questions or address concerns when the missionaries aren't around, and 4. Be friends and fellowshippers during the crucial first year or so after baptism). Unfortunately, this transfer, a lot of the members weren't available to meet for a long, long time (I...kind of suspect they don't like my new companion...not to be mean, but...I don't really blame them...); however, good news is, this week we've basically got every evening taken with either lessons to pump members up about missionary work, our English class, or our investigator (Vasil is his name). So, things may just be looking up.
In other news, we had exchanges last Friday and Saturday, so I was paired up with Elder Kauffman, who was in my MTC group and with whom I've gotten to be pretty good friends. We decided, as usual, to go contacting, and so we decided to explore the area a little bit (there's a few far-reaching parts that I'd never been to). We had just traveled to the farthest boundary from our apartment when we realized that the sun had just gone dark. Now, I've probably written about this before, but in Ukraine rain works differently than in in the Western US. There are some days where the clouds move so fast that they overtake you in automobiles, and when they're full of rain, that leads to sudden torrential downpours that get you soaked, then disappear in an instant. So, just as Elder Kauffman and I realized how far from home we were, we also realized that we were about to get drenched. And then we realized that the black clouds went all the way back to the horizon--it wasn't going to blow over quickly. We decided to start heading home.
We made it about a hundred feet when the clouds basically turned on the faucet on top of us. We ran to a sidewalk next to a partially-constructed apartment building that had been covered with wood by the construction crew, only to find that the rain was coming so hard, and there were so many cracks in the roof, that we might as well be standing in the rain anyway. We saw a covered bus stop about two hundred feet away, and after psyching ourselves up a bit, we sprinted to it. Now, we've been on our missions a while now (as of today, 9 months since I went in the MTC), so our shoes are starting to get really pretty worn down, and when they do that, they get really slippery, especially on wet surfaces; and for some reason, the white paint lines on crosswalks (they have the horizontal "zebra stripe" crosswalks here) turn incredibly slick, so as we ran, we had to dodge puddles, cars, and white painted lines, all the while getting soaked thoroughly. We made it to the bus stop, then realized that we had a sport day activity that evening, and we'd have to get all the way back to our apartment before that. We quickly found out as well that there were no buses or anything that came to that stop that would take us anywhere we wanted to go. We had to go it alone.
We ran from cover to cover, trying to wait for times when the rain would die down, but in general just having to sprint through the worst of it. Finally, we reached a large parking lot with several covered spaces. We went into an empty covered space and waited, trying to plan our next move, when we noticed a little old man slowly walking towards us through the rain. He came in and walked up to us and, obviously drunk, asked, "Is there life after this one?" We said, "Yes," to which he cackled maniacally, held out his hand, and said, "Where's my dollar?" We told him we didn't have any money, so he asked again, "Is there life after this one?" Elder Kauffman and I looked at each other, then at him (to which he cackled again), bid him "Dopobachinya" ("See ya") and ran out to the street. We stood there for a minute, waiting for traffic to die down, when we glanced back and saw the crazy drunk man slowly walking after us. Thankfully, there was a convenient break in the traffic, so we darted across and ran a brief evasion maneuver, eventually stopping at an overhang on an apartment building. We waited there for a minute before deciding that we were already wet enough, we might as well just go the rest of the way home, even though it was still a good fifteen minute walk.
The worst part? As soon as we stepped into the apartment, the sun was shining through the windows, and the storm had passed.
I've included a picture of myself in the middle of this excursion, just to help show how wet I was. This, mind you, was after the rain had died down quite a bit. All in all, it was a really fun adventure, and now that I've dried off, it makes a good story.
Well, that's my long-winded email for this week. Talk to you again later!
--Elder Brett
In other news, we had exchanges last Friday and Saturday, so I was paired up with Elder Kauffman, who was in my MTC group and with whom I've gotten to be pretty good friends. We decided, as usual, to go contacting, and so we decided to explore the area a little bit (there's a few far-reaching parts that I'd never been to). We had just traveled to the farthest boundary from our apartment when we realized that the sun had just gone dark. Now, I've probably written about this before, but in Ukraine rain works differently than in in the Western US. There are some days where the clouds move so fast that they overtake you in automobiles, and when they're full of rain, that leads to sudden torrential downpours that get you soaked, then disappear in an instant. So, just as Elder Kauffman and I realized how far from home we were, we also realized that we were about to get drenched. And then we realized that the black clouds went all the way back to the horizon--it wasn't going to blow over quickly. We decided to start heading home.
We made it about a hundred feet when the clouds basically turned on the faucet on top of us. We ran to a sidewalk next to a partially-constructed apartment building that had been covered with wood by the construction crew, only to find that the rain was coming so hard, and there were so many cracks in the roof, that we might as well be standing in the rain anyway. We saw a covered bus stop about two hundred feet away, and after psyching ourselves up a bit, we sprinted to it. Now, we've been on our missions a while now (as of today, 9 months since I went in the MTC), so our shoes are starting to get really pretty worn down, and when they do that, they get really slippery, especially on wet surfaces; and for some reason, the white paint lines on crosswalks (they have the horizontal "zebra stripe" crosswalks here) turn incredibly slick, so as we ran, we had to dodge puddles, cars, and white painted lines, all the while getting soaked thoroughly. We made it to the bus stop, then realized that we had a sport day activity that evening, and we'd have to get all the way back to our apartment before that. We quickly found out as well that there were no buses or anything that came to that stop that would take us anywhere we wanted to go. We had to go it alone.
We ran from cover to cover, trying to wait for times when the rain would die down, but in general just having to sprint through the worst of it. Finally, we reached a large parking lot with several covered spaces. We went into an empty covered space and waited, trying to plan our next move, when we noticed a little old man slowly walking towards us through the rain. He came in and walked up to us and, obviously drunk, asked, "Is there life after this one?" We said, "Yes," to which he cackled maniacally, held out his hand, and said, "Where's my dollar?" We told him we didn't have any money, so he asked again, "Is there life after this one?" Elder Kauffman and I looked at each other, then at him (to which he cackled again), bid him "Dopobachinya" ("See ya") and ran out to the street. We stood there for a minute, waiting for traffic to die down, when we glanced back and saw the crazy drunk man slowly walking after us. Thankfully, there was a convenient break in the traffic, so we darted across and ran a brief evasion maneuver, eventually stopping at an overhang on an apartment building. We waited there for a minute before deciding that we were already wet enough, we might as well just go the rest of the way home, even though it was still a good fifteen minute walk.
The worst part? As soon as we stepped into the apartment, the sun was shining through the windows, and the storm had passed.
I've included a picture of myself in the middle of this excursion, just to help show how wet I was. This, mind you, was after the rain had died down quite a bit. All in all, it was a really fun adventure, and now that I've dried off, it makes a good story.
Well, that's my long-winded email for this week. Talk to you again later!
--Elder Brett
Big news from Ukraine... (July 4, 2007)
Hello everyone! So, this has been an exciting litle period of time recently. First of all, I had my monthly interview with President Davis, and instead of the usual "How are you? How can I help? Well, see you later," he instead revealed to me the reasons why I've had every companion I've had up to this point, and he revealed what my plan was for next transfer. Up to now (and even including now) I've had a lot of companions who, though in some cases were really cool people, they just weren't exactly the best missionaries in our mission. I've spent a lot of time wondering why that was always the case, and then, in my interview, the "veil was parted" so to speak, and pretty much everything was laid bare. At first I thought President Davis was angry with me, but it turns out it was almost exactly opposite, which is good. It was really a cool interview.
Then, the biggest, coolest news in a long time--the Kyiv Ukraine temple, which was announced in 1998 and has held the "record" if you will for longest period after it's announcement before work began on it, had it's groundbreaking a week ago from Saturday! It's estimated to take about three to five years to build, but the important thing is, it's on its way...finally.
Well, sad as it is to say, that's about all that was exciting about this week. We've been doing a lot--a LOT--of street contacting and tracting, but so far, little has come from it. We keep trying to work with the members in our ward, but I have a sneaking suspicion they don't like my companion too much...he doesn't exactly go out of his way to be endearing to people...
Well, have a good week, I love you all, and I'll write again next week!
--Elder Brett
Then, the biggest, coolest news in a long time--the Kyiv Ukraine temple, which was announced in 1998 and has held the "record" if you will for longest period after it's announcement before work began on it, had it's groundbreaking a week ago from Saturday! It's estimated to take about three to five years to build, but the important thing is, it's on its way...finally.
Well, sad as it is to say, that's about all that was exciting about this week. We've been doing a lot--a LOT--of street contacting and tracting, but so far, little has come from it. We keep trying to work with the members in our ward, but I have a sneaking suspicion they don't like my companion too much...he doesn't exactly go out of his way to be endearing to people...
Well, have a good week, I love you all, and I'll write again next week!
--Elder Brett
Time flies
Hello again everyone! Happy birthday Renee! Happy birthday Mom! 50 might sound like a lot, but as they say here in Ukraine, "Shche ne vechir!" ("Still not evening!", as in, "You're not dead yet!").
Speaking of time flying, today marks my being in Ukraine for 6 months. I've already been in-country for half a year. That also means that I have about four months until I reach the halfway mark of my entire mission (!). It really boggles my mind about how fast time moves! This is my black hole year (the time on my mission when I have an entire year to pass through instead of just a part of one), and it's half over in a week or two. It's going too fast!
And it doesn't help that Carter, Alli, Mary, and Jensen are growing by leaps and bounds every time I get pictures of them!
All right, enough about that. So, the inside door handle on our apartment front door, being the best in Soviet manufacturing, broke off a few days ago. Tired of having to use the pliars on my leatherman to open the door, we gave our landlady, Lidiya, a call. She comes and takes apart our remaining handle and then leaves and buys a new one. When she comes back, she finds out that the new one doesn't actually fit, and it won't work. She tried to put the old one back on, only to remember that when she bought the new handle, the place kept a large portion of the old handle; so, in order to put the old one back on she used the caps to a Pepsi bottle and a Fanta bottle. While cutting holes in these, she cut her thumb. Then, she went to check our water meter readings, only to end up breaking a piece of loose tile. And then she left. Lesson to be learned: No matter how bad things seem, things could always be worse. Especially if you live in a Ukrainian apartment.
But, as a matter of good news, we finally have a progressing investigator again! It's been about two transfers since I've had one. Her name is Valentina Ponomarenko, and we hope to get her husband, Sasha, and her daughter, Alyana, interested too. Things are definitely looking up!
Well, I need to run, as usual. I love you all, and I'll write again next week!
--Elder Brett
Speaking of time flying, today marks my being in Ukraine for 6 months. I've already been in-country for half a year. That also means that I have about four months until I reach the halfway mark of my entire mission (!). It really boggles my mind about how fast time moves! This is my black hole year (the time on my mission when I have an entire year to pass through instead of just a part of one), and it's half over in a week or two. It's going too fast!
And it doesn't help that Carter, Alli, Mary, and Jensen are growing by leaps and bounds every time I get pictures of them!
All right, enough about that. So, the inside door handle on our apartment front door, being the best in Soviet manufacturing, broke off a few days ago. Tired of having to use the pliars on my leatherman to open the door, we gave our landlady, Lidiya, a call. She comes and takes apart our remaining handle and then leaves and buys a new one. When she comes back, she finds out that the new one doesn't actually fit, and it won't work. She tried to put the old one back on, only to remember that when she bought the new handle, the place kept a large portion of the old handle; so, in order to put the old one back on she used the caps to a Pepsi bottle and a Fanta bottle. While cutting holes in these, she cut her thumb. Then, she went to check our water meter readings, only to end up breaking a piece of loose tile. And then she left. Lesson to be learned: No matter how bad things seem, things could always be worse. Especially if you live in a Ukrainian apartment.
But, as a matter of good news, we finally have a progressing investigator again! It's been about two transfers since I've had one. Her name is Valentina Ponomarenko, and we hope to get her husband, Sasha, and her daughter, Alyana, interested too. Things are definitely looking up!
Well, I need to run, as usual. I love you all, and I'll write again next week!
--Elder Brett
So much for my ldsmail...
Well, once again myldsmail isn't working, so we're back to our backup emails. Once again, I don't get to read most of the emails from you, so once again, I have the fun experience to get to miss almost all contact from my family. Wonderful! Boy do I like myldsmail.
All right, well, less sarcastically, something incredibly interesting happened this week. On Saturday, the Kharkivsky ward went on a picnic to this place that's basically a gigantic park with a lot of little historic ancient-looking Ukrainian buildings and villages. It was really pretty and really cool (and it made us wish a little that the rest of Ukraine looked more like that...), but that's not what's so cool. What made it so exceptional was that while we were there, we decided to go to a souvenir area, and we noticed a large crowd. We got a little closer and noticed that, strategically throughout the rest of the crowd, were people with ear-phone and radios. Wondering who was there, we made our way into the crowd, and who did we see not five feet away but Viktor Yuschenko, President of Ukraine! If the crowd was a little thinner, I could have taken two steps and touched him. There he was, shopping for pottery. That brings my number of heads of state personally seen up-close to...1. Unless the governor of Idaho counts...which he probably doesn't...
Well, we're going to head off a little early and try back again later, to see if myldsmail is working then. I love you all, and I'll send some pictures then!
--Elder Brett
Pictures!
Well, myldsmail's working again, so thanks for the emails! Here's some pictures:
Elder Hurst - This is at the historical village museum/park. It's really, really pretty there.
Brother Slepak - This is a really cool member of the ward here.
Vashenko Family - This family is amazing. They're in our ward also. They are also the largest family I've ever met in Ukraine--most have one to three kids.
Yuschenko - The President himself!
Yuschenko Shopping - Apparently, not only does he love coming to this museum/park place, he also really likes collecting pottery, or at least so some of our investigators tell us.
True Ukrainian - Me in Cossack clothes again. The Vashenko family really likes dressing missionaries up like this. It's fun to get to dress like a Cossack in a traditional Ukrainian village.
Until next week!
--Brett
Elder Hurst - This is at the historical village museum/park. It's really, really pretty there.
Brother Slepak - This is a really cool member of the ward here.
Vashenko Family - This family is amazing. They're in our ward also. They are also the largest family I've ever met in Ukraine--most have one to three kids.
Yuschenko - The President himself!
Yuschenko Shopping - Apparently, not only does he love coming to this museum/park place, he also really likes collecting pottery, or at least so some of our investigators tell us.
True Ukrainian - Me in Cossack clothes again. The Vashenko family really likes dressing missionaries up like this. It's fun to get to dress like a Cossack in a traditional Ukrainian village.
Until next week!
--Brett
Another transfer's done already!
Hello again! Well, transfers are this week, and due to a larger than normal group of missionaries going home, most of the transfers took place on Monday instead of Thursday, when they usually do. Basically, I'm still in Kharkivsky, but Elder Walk was moved somewhere else (not to be mean to him, but...it'll be a bit of a blessing for the area) and another elder, Elder Miles, is my new companion. Elder Miles is a lot more optimistic and upbeat than Elder Walk, so I hope that'll help the work in our area a bit. So far it's been fairly dead.
So we had an...interesting experience tracting the other day. We went out to an apartment building and started knocking it down without any success, and we were starting to get a little frustrated. Finally we reached one door where we could hear music playing on the inside, and we could tell from the electricity meter in the hallway that someone was definitely in there (one of the little tricks you pick up here); but, the first time I rang the doorbell, no one came to the door. Being, like I said, a little frustrated, I decided that letting them ignore us wasn't going to be an option, so I knocked, and we heard the music get turned down and someone walk to the door. We stood there, hoping that this was a change in our luck, and only felt more so when the lady who answered invited us in. We came in and I started to try leading into a lesson, but she kept saying, "Don't teach me yet, we haven't had tea yet!" So, a little apprehensively, we followed her into the kitchen, and after a brief struggle to make sure we had herbal tea instead of green tea, we once again tried teaching her a lesson. Unfortunately, the woman--who, by the way, was no doubt well into her sixties--wasn't so much interested in our lesson as she was...in us. So, I can now officially say that I have been hit on by a sixty-something year old Ukrainian woman. Yeah. I glanced at my comp worriedly, to which he comfortingly responded, "You got us in here, you get us out." Thanks Elder Miles. Anyway, we had a bitter struggle to leave. She kept offering us cookies, candy, salo (which is, literally, a block of straight pig fat that people here eat like cheese), and borscht--never mind the fact that borscht takes several hours to cook!--so finally, FINALLY, I just said, "Thank you, but we NEED TO GO." She laughed and asked us, like she did a lot, what our home address was, and so we just ignored it and left as quick as we could. Yikes.
Anyway, other than that...experience, things are going well here. I've got high hopes for this transfer. Good luck with everything on the home front, and I miss you all (especially my nieces and nephews...even if I've never seen them yet...)
Have a good week!
--Elder Brett
So we had an...interesting experience tracting the other day. We went out to an apartment building and started knocking it down without any success, and we were starting to get a little frustrated. Finally we reached one door where we could hear music playing on the inside, and we could tell from the electricity meter in the hallway that someone was definitely in there (one of the little tricks you pick up here); but, the first time I rang the doorbell, no one came to the door. Being, like I said, a little frustrated, I decided that letting them ignore us wasn't going to be an option, so I knocked, and we heard the music get turned down and someone walk to the door. We stood there, hoping that this was a change in our luck, and only felt more so when the lady who answered invited us in. We came in and I started to try leading into a lesson, but she kept saying, "Don't teach me yet, we haven't had tea yet!" So, a little apprehensively, we followed her into the kitchen, and after a brief struggle to make sure we had herbal tea instead of green tea, we once again tried teaching her a lesson. Unfortunately, the woman--who, by the way, was no doubt well into her sixties--wasn't so much interested in our lesson as she was...in us. So, I can now officially say that I have been hit on by a sixty-something year old Ukrainian woman. Yeah. I glanced at my comp worriedly, to which he comfortingly responded, "You got us in here, you get us out." Thanks Elder Miles. Anyway, we had a bitter struggle to leave. She kept offering us cookies, candy, salo (which is, literally, a block of straight pig fat that people here eat like cheese), and borscht--never mind the fact that borscht takes several hours to cook!--so finally, FINALLY, I just said, "Thank you, but we NEED TO GO." She laughed and asked us, like she did a lot, what our home address was, and so we just ignored it and left as quick as we could. Yikes.
Anyway, other than that...experience, things are going well here. I've got high hopes for this transfer. Good luck with everything on the home front, and I miss you all (especially my nieces and nephews...even if I've never seen them yet...)
Have a good week!
--Elder Brett
Dobriy vechir!
Hello again! Well, because of a few weird occurances today, we weren't able to do email until a lot later today, and myldsmail, being far from perfect, wasn't working at all. So, here I am back on gmail for the week.
Well, this was an interesting week. Unfortunately, I also don't have much time here, so I'll have to only say the top two things.
First, on the way to an appointment last week, Elder Walk noticed something sticking out of a dumpster. Upon closer examination, we found it to be a large lawn gnome. I decided that, if it was still there when our appointment was done, we were going to have to claim it as our own. The appointment went well, we visited a less active member and showed him the movie "The Testaments," which he greatly enjoyed (he even copied it to his computer...probably not the best thing with a church movie, but I'm not going to say anything to him about it, since he's a political bodyguard and outweighs me by probably almost double--in pure muscle). Then, on the way home, we passed by the dumpster, and the gnome was gone. "Oh well," we thought, "it was a good idea anyway." Then, a few steps later, who should we see but the gnome itself, standing off to the side as though it had climbed out and was enjoying its former career (although, judging by the group of drunk young people nearby, that probably wasn't entirely accurate). Acting quickly, I snagged it and we struggled back to our apartment, where we cleaned him up and spray painted him silver. He now has a place of honor in our front hallway, a small Ukrainian flag in his hand.
The other thing that happened was only earlier today; it was, in large part, what kept us from doing internet until later. President Davis has a friend in America who taped the Fiesta Bowl game and sent it to him on a DVD; he then gave permission to the AP's and whoever they invited (as long as it was a very small gathering) to get together in center and watch it. Guess who got invited? In case you don't know, the Fiesta Bowl college football game this year featured Boise State against Oklahoma, and was an amazing win for BSU. It was probably the best football game I've ever seen. Needless to say, it was a very, very good day.
Well, I've got to run again. I love you all, and I hope you all have a good week! Hopefully next week I'll be back to normal on myldsmail (well...hopefully soon we won't have to use myldsmail anymore...but oh well...)
--Elder Brett
PS-This unfortunately means I wasn't able to read any of your messages this week...trust me, it's not fun to have my only pipeline home temporarily cut off. But oh well...
The Weeks Are Flying By...
Hello again everyone! As of Sunday, I've been in Ukraine for five months. Five months! It seems more like five weeks. Time keeps slipping through my fingers. It's kind of strange too, because there's so many elders here who can't wait for the end of their missions, and it seems sort of like I'm in the minority when I want time to slow down considerably.
Well, heres the news from the East:
Last Wednesday, our district and our zone leaders went to the Kiev Zoo. It was a lot of fun, except for the fact that it certainly seemed like 80% of the animals there were sickly and diseased. The monkeys had patches of fur falling off and had weird wounds, the elephant looked like it was going to die on its feet, and the hippo--aside from constantly being squirted in the eye by a hose in the wall--just kind of sat there, angry enough at everyone to roar every now and then, but not angry enough to move or do much else. They also had some animals that may be exciting for Ukrainians, but not quite for Americans, like deer, rabbits, and raccoons. It was...interesting, to say the least, but it was fun.
Later in the week, we decided to do another street sign (we've done it a few times now; it works pretty well). This time, we had been waiting for a while without talking to anyone when this middle eastern-looking guy walked up. He came up and, in English, asked if we spoke English. We said yes, and he proceeded to tell us about how the governments of western Europe--mostly the English government--were trying to hunt him down, and that he was in the middle of a massive military operation; not only that, but every police force in Europe as well were working together to hassle him, never anything too serious, but they'd pretend to be businesses that'd give him jobs, but then have the addresses to the jobs be empty warehouses. He said that everyone he's ever known, including his parents, are secret undercover police agents, and that he traveled to the Vatican to seek help from the Pope himself. He--for some reason...--wasn't actually allowed to talk to the Pope, but a Catholic bishop gave him two minutes to tell his story; unfortunately, as we learned through our own conversation with him, his was a story that takes thirty to forty five minutes to tell, especially since it involved a lot of repitition. He then told us about the wires and microchips implanted in his brain so that the English government could send him "digitally clear" dreams at night, and about how the police hasslings "were meant to drive me crazy. And it worked a bit. I still walk around talking to myself." He told us a lot more (like I said, 45 minutes worth), and I wrote down a lot of it later in my journal. Be sure to remind me to show you it when I get home!
In less schizophrenia-laden news, I've been able to go on exchanges a lot lately with Elder Kauffman, who was in my MTC group. It's a lot of fun being with someone your same "age" on the mission; it was kind of cool, because it proved to us how much better we know the language than we've thought. The two of us were able to talk to anyone we contacted almost without problem, and between the two of us we could understand almost perfectly. It's fun to see how far I've come in the language. It was also fun to see how far we've come in teaching ability. The awkward teaching practice in the MTC is far behind us, and now we're actually teaching easily and naturally, and well. I was able to answer the concerns of one of our street contacts better than I thought I would, and I was even able to be really bold when necessary; he told us that every church leads to God, so without hesitating I asked, "How many Gods are there?" He said, "One." I then said, "Why does one God work through many churches?" It was amazing; I wouldn't have thought of that on my own; I know that it was the Spirit at work, because it was exactly what he needed to hear. And not only that, but all throughout the lesson--which was about an hour long--I was able to say things that were the necessary things to say, that I wouldn't have even considered at any other time.
Well, time flies in internet clubs also, so I've got to get going. I love you all, and I hope you all have a good week!
--Elder Brett
Well, heres the news from the East:
Last Wednesday, our district and our zone leaders went to the Kiev Zoo. It was a lot of fun, except for the fact that it certainly seemed like 80% of the animals there were sickly and diseased. The monkeys had patches of fur falling off and had weird wounds, the elephant looked like it was going to die on its feet, and the hippo--aside from constantly being squirted in the eye by a hose in the wall--just kind of sat there, angry enough at everyone to roar every now and then, but not angry enough to move or do much else. They also had some animals that may be exciting for Ukrainians, but not quite for Americans, like deer, rabbits, and raccoons. It was...interesting, to say the least, but it was fun.
Later in the week, we decided to do another street sign (we've done it a few times now; it works pretty well). This time, we had been waiting for a while without talking to anyone when this middle eastern-looking guy walked up. He came up and, in English, asked if we spoke English. We said yes, and he proceeded to tell us about how the governments of western Europe--mostly the English government--were trying to hunt him down, and that he was in the middle of a massive military operation; not only that, but every police force in Europe as well were working together to hassle him, never anything too serious, but they'd pretend to be businesses that'd give him jobs, but then have the addresses to the jobs be empty warehouses. He said that everyone he's ever known, including his parents, are secret undercover police agents, and that he traveled to the Vatican to seek help from the Pope himself. He--for some reason...--wasn't actually allowed to talk to the Pope, but a Catholic bishop gave him two minutes to tell his story; unfortunately, as we learned through our own conversation with him, his was a story that takes thirty to forty five minutes to tell, especially since it involved a lot of repitition. He then told us about the wires and microchips implanted in his brain so that the English government could send him "digitally clear" dreams at night, and about how the police hasslings "were meant to drive me crazy. And it worked a bit. I still walk around talking to myself." He told us a lot more (like I said, 45 minutes worth), and I wrote down a lot of it later in my journal. Be sure to remind me to show you it when I get home!
In less schizophrenia-laden news, I've been able to go on exchanges a lot lately with Elder Kauffman, who was in my MTC group. It's a lot of fun being with someone your same "age" on the mission; it was kind of cool, because it proved to us how much better we know the language than we've thought. The two of us were able to talk to anyone we contacted almost without problem, and between the two of us we could understand almost perfectly. It's fun to see how far I've come in the language. It was also fun to see how far we've come in teaching ability. The awkward teaching practice in the MTC is far behind us, and now we're actually teaching easily and naturally, and well. I was able to answer the concerns of one of our street contacts better than I thought I would, and I was even able to be really bold when necessary; he told us that every church leads to God, so without hesitating I asked, "How many Gods are there?" He said, "One." I then said, "Why does one God work through many churches?" It was amazing; I wouldn't have thought of that on my own; I know that it was the Spirit at work, because it was exactly what he needed to hear. And not only that, but all throughout the lesson--which was about an hour long--I was able to say things that were the necessary things to say, that I wouldn't have even considered at any other time.
Well, time flies in internet clubs also, so I've got to get going. I love you all, and I hope you all have a good week!
--Elder Brett
Pictures First
All right, here's my pictures for the week first of all:
922 - The large gray tower you see there is our apartment building. We call it the Dark Tower. (Then again, we also get to read Lord of the Rings on P-Days).
926 - We did some service last Saturday at an investigator family's dacha, which is like a cottage or summerhome...sort of. They have an apartment in the city, but just outside the city they have a little house in a village. Anyways, we dug a deep hole. When we were finished, it was up to my armpits.
950 - Ukrainians in the summertime like a drink called Kvas ("KBAC" as written in Ukrainian). They buy it from large yellow tanks like this on the street. It costs 70 kopek a glass; that's 14 cents.
953 - I wanted to try some Kvas, seeing as to how I'm here in Ukraine. This is my first taste.
954 - This is my reaction. As it turns out, the way you make Kvas is to put bread in a bunch of mineral water and let it "ferment" (we may know the process better as "mold"). So, in short, Kvas is moldy bread water. And it tastes just like it.
957 - My second, much more cautious taste.
Basically, Kvas to Ukrainians is like Root Beer to Americans; they love it, foreigners can't stand it.
--Elder Hurst
922 - The large gray tower you see there is our apartment building. We call it the Dark Tower. (Then again, we also get to read Lord of the Rings on P-Days).
926 - We did some service last Saturday at an investigator family's dacha, which is like a cottage or summerhome...sort of. They have an apartment in the city, but just outside the city they have a little house in a village. Anyways, we dug a deep hole. When we were finished, it was up to my armpits.
950 - Ukrainians in the summertime like a drink called Kvas ("KBAC" as written in Ukrainian). They buy it from large yellow tanks like this on the street. It costs 70 kopek a glass; that's 14 cents.
953 - I wanted to try some Kvas, seeing as to how I'm here in Ukraine. This is my first taste.
954 - This is my reaction. As it turns out, the way you make Kvas is to put bread in a bunch of mineral water and let it "ferment" (we may know the process better as "mold"). So, in short, Kvas is moldy bread water. And it tastes just like it.
957 - My second, much more cautious taste.
Basically, Kvas to Ukrainians is like Root Beer to Americans; they love it, foreigners can't stand it.
--Elder Hurst
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