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.
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
