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!
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.
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