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
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
Yak zavzhdy, pryvit! (May 23, 2007)
Hello again everyone! It's that time again, and I actually have a few interesting stories this time around.
First of all, the weather has gotten hot here. Well, no, that's not quite true, it's actually gotten H O T here. The humidity doesn't help. I remember with an odd sense of irony back when I was still new here and there was snow on the ground. I also remember how naively I had thought that Ukraine was always a cold place. Not so anymore!
All right, now to more interesting stuff. Last Saturday, Elder Walk and I had a lesson with an investigator family (the Ponomarenko family--they're really, really cool) and were walking home when we noticed, off in the distance, dark clouds and lightning. We thought it was cool and took a few pictures, then went down and got on the metro and forgot about it. However, when we came out the other side, it turns out the storm had travelled incredibly fast and was right on top of us! So there we were, sprinting from shelter to shelter, making our way to the bus stop while driving rain and pounding lightning poured down around us. It was probably the heaviest storm I've been caught in in a long time.
On Monday, we went to Family Home Evening with a family in our ward named the Mutilins. Brother Mutilin is on the Stake High Council, and looks like he would fit in on a High Council in just about any ward in Idaho or Utah. Sister Mutilin is your average LDS mom (she reminded me of Sister Soelberg, for those of you who know her). They have a son who served a mission to Ogden Utah and who speaks near-fluent English, and a daughter who's incredibly pregnant and kind of reminds me of Renee (not only because of the pregnant part). She also has a son who's about 4-ish and is the coolest kid I've ever met who isn't related to me. He's really funny, and he's learning a little English (he eventually said, after overcoming some shyness, "Hello missionaries, how old are you?"). The meeting was great. I love seeing happy families here. Too often the only families I see are either a single mom who's more concerned with looking fashionable than being a mom, or parents who are too busy holding their cigarette and bottle of beer to hold their kid's hand.
There's a little saying that Elder Isaacs and I came up with last transfer: "Never bother a missionary between 10:30 at night and 6:30 in the morning." Those are our hours to sleep, and those are very, very precious to us. So imagine how we felt yesterday morning at about 5 when someone pounded on our door and kept ringing the doorbell. If you imagined that we were angry and confused, you'd be correct. We answered after a little while (we were really tired, and so it took a few minutes for us to work out that this wasn't a dream) and found out that the hallway outside our apartment had flooded with water, and our neighbor from the floor below was wondering if it was coming from us. We looked and it wasn't, so he left and we went to bed again. Ten minutes later, someone else started pounding and ringing the doorbell, so we got up again and answered the door to find the neighbor whose apartment was the one with the problem asking if we could help him out. We went over and helped clean the water out of his apartment towel by towel, squeezing the water into the toilet. After about thirty minutes, the apartment was a lot cleaner, and we went back to bed. We had just fallen asleep again when another neighbor, having only just woken up I guess, noticed the water and again assumed it was us responsible (why is it always the missionaries' fault?) and pounded on our door and rang the doorbell until we answered. The worst part of the story? Twenty minutes later, ANOTHER PERSON DID THE SAME THING!
Well, I'd better get going. I love you all, and I hope you all have a good week!
--Elder Brett
First of all, the weather has gotten hot here. Well, no, that's not quite true, it's actually gotten H O T here. The humidity doesn't help. I remember with an odd sense of irony back when I was still new here and there was snow on the ground. I also remember how naively I had thought that Ukraine was always a cold place. Not so anymore!
All right, now to more interesting stuff. Last Saturday, Elder Walk and I had a lesson with an investigator family (the Ponomarenko family--they're really, really cool) and were walking home when we noticed, off in the distance, dark clouds and lightning. We thought it was cool and took a few pictures, then went down and got on the metro and forgot about it. However, when we came out the other side, it turns out the storm had travelled incredibly fast and was right on top of us! So there we were, sprinting from shelter to shelter, making our way to the bus stop while driving rain and pounding lightning poured down around us. It was probably the heaviest storm I've been caught in in a long time.
On Monday, we went to Family Home Evening with a family in our ward named the Mutilins. Brother Mutilin is on the Stake High Council, and looks like he would fit in on a High Council in just about any ward in Idaho or Utah. Sister Mutilin is your average LDS mom (she reminded me of Sister Soelberg, for those of you who know her). They have a son who served a mission to Ogden Utah and who speaks near-fluent English, and a daughter who's incredibly pregnant and kind of reminds me of Renee (not only because of the pregnant part). She also has a son who's about 4-ish and is the coolest kid I've ever met who isn't related to me. He's really funny, and he's learning a little English (he eventually said, after overcoming some shyness, "Hello missionaries, how old are you?"). The meeting was great. I love seeing happy families here. Too often the only families I see are either a single mom who's more concerned with looking fashionable than being a mom, or parents who are too busy holding their cigarette and bottle of beer to hold their kid's hand.
There's a little saying that Elder Isaacs and I came up with last transfer: "Never bother a missionary between 10:30 at night and 6:30 in the morning." Those are our hours to sleep, and those are very, very precious to us. So imagine how we felt yesterday morning at about 5 when someone pounded on our door and kept ringing the doorbell. If you imagined that we were angry and confused, you'd be correct. We answered after a little while (we were really tired, and so it took a few minutes for us to work out that this wasn't a dream) and found out that the hallway outside our apartment had flooded with water, and our neighbor from the floor below was wondering if it was coming from us. We looked and it wasn't, so he left and we went to bed again. Ten minutes later, someone else started pounding and ringing the doorbell, so we got up again and answered the door to find the neighbor whose apartment was the one with the problem asking if we could help him out. We went over and helped clean the water out of his apartment towel by towel, squeezing the water into the toilet. After about thirty minutes, the apartment was a lot cleaner, and we went back to bed. We had just fallen asleep again when another neighbor, having only just woken up I guess, noticed the water and again assumed it was us responsible (why is it always the missionaries' fault?) and pounded on our door and rang the doorbell until we answered. The worst part of the story? Twenty minutes later, ANOTHER PERSON DID THE SAME THING!
Well, I'd better get going. I love you all, and I hope you all have a good week!
--Elder Brett
PS - Here's some pictures! (May 23, 2007)
Hello again, I remembered that I have pictures I wanted to send out today also!
CIMG0813 - On Saturday a few people from the ward and the missionaries went to the Kiev Botanical Gardens. This is us with the ward members.
CIMG0810 - While we were there, I ran into a group of girls from my very first area, Voskresensky.
CIMG0803 - Again from the gardens. I like the contrast in this picture.
CIMG0845 - On Monday we did a Street Sign, which worked really well and was a lot of fun. This is me, hard at work, with the sign beside me. (Shortly after this picture was taken, I gave the Book of Mormon there in my hand to a guy who walked up without a shirt on).
CIMG0852 - We were contacting and exploring our area a little when we found this cool spot overlooking a large "lake" (really a drainage pool) with our area behind along the horizon.
--Elder Hurst
CIMG0813 - On Saturday a few people from the ward and the missionaries went to the Kiev Botanical Gardens. This is us with the ward members.
CIMG0810 - While we were there, I ran into a group of girls from my very first area, Voskresensky.
CIMG0803 - Again from the gardens. I like the contrast in this picture.
CIMG0845 - On Monday we did a Street Sign, which worked really well and was a lot of fun. This is me, hard at work, with the sign beside me. (Shortly after this picture was taken, I gave the Book of Mormon there in my hand to a guy who walked up without a shirt on).
CIMG0852 - We were contacting and exploring our area a little when we found this cool spot overlooking a large "lake" (really a drainage pool) with our area behind along the horizon.
--Elder Hurst
Teper ya ye kozakom (May 16, 2007)
Hello again everyone! This was a fantastic week, largely because Sunday was Mother's Day and so I got to talk to most of you, which was awesome to do!! I don't have that much news since then, however. It seems as though after this transfer, my current companion, Elder Walk, will be leaving and I'll be inheriting this area; it also seems to be that I might be going senior comp next transfer, which if it's true, is kind of scary but exciting at the same time. But, as usual, I'm not certain of any of this, and next transfer is still four weeks away, so I wouldn't be surprised to end up in L'viv or Lutsk, clear away in the West.
Since news is so short, I thought I'd send a few attachments along. Before you begin thinking that I and all the other missionaries in my pictures have gone apostate, let me warn you that we have been asked to not wear nametags, and we've been allowed to wear colored shirts and, if we want, to go without ties; there's been some demonstrations and protests and things here, so the mission office just wants to be safe. Honestly, I get a street's-eye view here, and I've never seen or experienced anything to make me feel unsafe, so there's no need to worry, it's just a precaution.
CIMG0745 - On Mother's Day we missionaries dressed up like Cossacks and sang a traditional Cossack song about mothers. This is a recording of Elder Walk and I singing. Um...let me just say that this will not be our hit single.
(.wav file missing)
CIMG0741 - This may be my favorite picture so far from Ukraine.
CIMG0711 - Elder Pace, Elder Kauffman (from my MTC group), and I in a really fancy (and a little too expensive) pizza place in downtown Kiev.
CIMG0627 - This one's from Ivano. We were reading the Book of Mormon with some young member children, when their pet cat jumped on my shoulders and fell fast asleep. And laid there for about twenty minutes.
Well, I've got to go, but I love you all, and I'll write again next week!
--Elder Hurst
(PS-the subject line says "Now I'm a Cossack")
Since news is so short, I thought I'd send a few attachments along. Before you begin thinking that I and all the other missionaries in my pictures have gone apostate, let me warn you that we have been asked to not wear nametags, and we've been allowed to wear colored shirts and, if we want, to go without ties; there's been some demonstrations and protests and things here, so the mission office just wants to be safe. Honestly, I get a street's-eye view here, and I've never seen or experienced anything to make me feel unsafe, so there's no need to worry, it's just a precaution.
CIMG0745 - On Mother's Day we missionaries dressed up like Cossacks and sang a traditional Cossack song about mothers. This is a recording of Elder Walk and I singing. Um...let me just say that this will not be our hit single.
(.wav file missing)
CIMG0741 - This may be my favorite picture so far from Ukraine.
CIMG0711 - Elder Pace, Elder Kauffman (from my MTC group), and I in a really fancy (and a little too expensive) pizza place in downtown Kiev.
CIMG0627 - This one's from Ivano. We were reading the Book of Mormon with some young member children, when their pet cat jumped on my shoulders and fell fast asleep. And laid there for about twenty minutes.
Well, I've got to go, but I love you all, and I'll write again next week!
--Elder Hurst
(PS-the subject line says "Now I'm a Cossack")
Another new area (May 9, 2007)
Hello again everyone!
Well, I've been transferred again, and this time around I'm back in Kiev, in an area called Kharkivskyy. My new companion is Elder Walk, and many of you will be pleased to hear that he is a Mariner's fan.
So far this new area has been working out well. One of the elders in my district is from my MTC group, so we've been having a lot of fun being back together again. Our area is a lot like my other area in Voskresensky in Kiev, except that it's a little nicer looking, we're pretty close to the Dnipro river, and it's springtime, which means that instead of being bleak gray everywhere, there's actually a little bit of green everywhere. It also, however, means that the weather is getting kind of muggy and is starting to behave sort of like Washington DC weather, where it can be bright sunshine, then a thirty minute downpour, then bright sunshine again.
We've already had two interesting experiences here so far. First, on Sunday we visited a less active member named Sasha. Sasha may be the coolest guy I've ever met, as well as the strongest. He works as a political bodyguard, and he looks like the type of guy you don't want to mess with. He's incredibly large and muscly and he has a shaved-bald head. But, he's really funny and nice. He served a mission when he was younger (he's 32 now), and because of that and his other efforts when he was more active in the church, he played a large part in a lot of the baptisms in Kiev. Unfortunately, most of his friends nowadays are other bodyguards, and they don't quite live according to an LDS lifestyle, which is keeping him from doing so too. I really hope he starts coming to church again, because he sounds like he was a great teacher there and an excellent member missionary. Anyway, while we there, he showed us some self defense moves that were really cool.
My second story happened on Monday. We had just finished our district meeting at the church building here and were walking outside when we noticed a large crowd of security guards nearby. For some reason, the company occupying the space next to where the church is always has at least five or six OXOPOHA, "Okhorona," or security guards, marching around out front, but on Monday there were about ten or fifteen standing around staring at this woman who was holding a bible and busily writing something on the ground with sidewalk chalk. One of the guards approached us and asked if she was a member of our church. We told him no, we hadn't seen her before in our lives, and we talked with him for a little bit before he asked us if we could help them out. Apparently, she was writing in sidewalk chalk in front of a large loading gate that semi trucks needed to get into, and the security guards couldn't convince her to move. Knowing that we were religious people, and figuring that somehow we'd connect with her, they had us go and try to talk to her. So we did. Her name was Lyuda, and through her gestures (some of which were a little obscene) we learned that she was angry with the litter on the ground and with cars and with people in general for dirtying up the Earth. She didn't speak (she kept making frightening gestures as though her tongue had been cut out), and she kept walking over and standing barefoot in water puddles. She wrote weird, cryptic comments in Russian on the ground and also in her Bible using a pen. Finally, after about fifteen minutes, we got her to move away from the building, and then, after telling the security guards to get her some help, we were able to leave.
Well, that's my excitement so far. Have a good week, and happy mother's day!
--Brett
Well, I've been transferred again, and this time around I'm back in Kiev, in an area called Kharkivskyy. My new companion is Elder Walk, and many of you will be pleased to hear that he is a Mariner's fan.
So far this new area has been working out well. One of the elders in my district is from my MTC group, so we've been having a lot of fun being back together again. Our area is a lot like my other area in Voskresensky in Kiev, except that it's a little nicer looking, we're pretty close to the Dnipro river, and it's springtime, which means that instead of being bleak gray everywhere, there's actually a little bit of green everywhere. It also, however, means that the weather is getting kind of muggy and is starting to behave sort of like Washington DC weather, where it can be bright sunshine, then a thirty minute downpour, then bright sunshine again.
We've already had two interesting experiences here so far. First, on Sunday we visited a less active member named Sasha. Sasha may be the coolest guy I've ever met, as well as the strongest. He works as a political bodyguard, and he looks like the type of guy you don't want to mess with. He's incredibly large and muscly and he has a shaved-bald head. But, he's really funny and nice. He served a mission when he was younger (he's 32 now), and because of that and his other efforts when he was more active in the church, he played a large part in a lot of the baptisms in Kiev. Unfortunately, most of his friends nowadays are other bodyguards, and they don't quite live according to an LDS lifestyle, which is keeping him from doing so too. I really hope he starts coming to church again, because he sounds like he was a great teacher there and an excellent member missionary. Anyway, while we there, he showed us some self defense moves that were really cool.
My second story happened on Monday. We had just finished our district meeting at the church building here and were walking outside when we noticed a large crowd of security guards nearby. For some reason, the company occupying the space next to where the church is always has at least five or six OXOPOHA, "Okhorona," or security guards, marching around out front, but on Monday there were about ten or fifteen standing around staring at this woman who was holding a bible and busily writing something on the ground with sidewalk chalk. One of the guards approached us and asked if she was a member of our church. We told him no, we hadn't seen her before in our lives, and we talked with him for a little bit before he asked us if we could help them out. Apparently, she was writing in sidewalk chalk in front of a large loading gate that semi trucks needed to get into, and the security guards couldn't convince her to move. Knowing that we were religious people, and figuring that somehow we'd connect with her, they had us go and try to talk to her. So we did. Her name was Lyuda, and through her gestures (some of which were a little obscene) we learned that she was angry with the litter on the ground and with cars and with people in general for dirtying up the Earth. She didn't speak (she kept making frightening gestures as though her tongue had been cut out), and she kept walking over and standing barefoot in water puddles. She wrote weird, cryptic comments in Russian on the ground and also in her Bible using a pen. Finally, after about fifteen minutes, we got her to move away from the building, and then, after telling the security guards to get her some help, we were able to leave.
Well, that's my excitement so far. Have a good week, and happy mother's day!
--Brett
Always something new (May 2, 2007)
Well, this has certainly been an interesting week. On Thursday, we traveled from Ivano Frankivsk to L'viv so that we could see Elder Jeffrey R. Holland dedicate a new meetinghouse there, and we had a meeting with him and us missionaries before the dedication. It was really cool. Elder Holland is kind of infamous among missionaries because he has a tendency to go a little crazy when meeting with them. If he thinks the missionaries aren't obedient in some way or another, he'll be quick to get on their case about it. There's a video they show us in the MTC of a talk Elder Holland gave there several years ago. Nowadays its called "The Miracle of a Mission," but the original title was "Don't You Dare Go Home," which kind of shows how enthusiastic Elder Holland is prone to get. So, needless to say, we were a little worried; but as it turns out, when he came he told us that we were one of the best looking, most obedient missions he had ever visited, and so he didn't need to go ballistic. Instead, we had an incredibly interesting lesson about faith, revelation, and prophets. We were able to shake his hand as well, which means I've now shaken the hands of two apostles...
On Sunday we visited a town called Verkhovyna, which is a small town in the Carpathian Mountains. If it wasn't for the usual Ukrainian litter problem, Verkhovyna would probably be one of the most beautiful towns I've ever been to. It sits right in the mountains, surrounded by pine forests and split in half by a large river that people go rafting down. It was really pretty up there. The Carpathian Mountains are beautiful in Ukraine, especially because the Transylvanian region of them lies entirely in Romania, so there aren't any vampires for miles.
I've really enjoyed Ivano Frankivsk. It's strange and fun, and apparently, time goes really quick when you're here, because it's transfers already. And, alas, I'm the one getting shipped out. It was kind of sad at first to have to leave, but President Davis and I talked about it a little (he was in Ivano last night), and apparently the plan is for me to come back some time in the future and serve here for a lot longer. Also, I apparently have some cool assignment for this coming transfer, but I have to wait for tomorrow to find out what it is...
I love you all, and I'll write again soon!
--Elder Brett
PS - I included some more pictures this time around...not as many as I'd like, but as usual the internet club is to blame...these computers are INCREDIBLY SLOW...
CIMG0622 - This is a drawing of me done by a kid in Verkhovyna. Like many Ukrainian kids, he confuses my cyrillic name, "XYPCT" (Khurst) with the Ukrainian word for "crunch," "XPYCT" (Khrust). For many people, I'm Elder Crunch. It's not as glamorous as it sounds.
CIMG0620 - This is Verkhovyna. It's very, very beautiful.
CIMG0447 - A while ago we visited a castle in a town called Kamyanets-Podilsky. It was really cool, and this is my favorite picture from that trip.
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