Hello again everyone! Thank you all for the emails for my birthday--I honestly forgot that that was coming up this week...I guess a mission will do that to you...Anyways, I was able to get your package, Dad, but I haven't gotten yours yet, Mom, so hopefully it makes it all the way from Kyiv to little Ivano Frankivsk all right. Thank you!
Well, I have my second 'son' now. Elder Horne's a little different from Elder Higgins. Elder Higgins was sharp as a tack, a great studier, and very willing to take responsibility onto himself...
A couple of days ago, I came down with a cold or the flu or something. It's going away quickly, but I was pretty miserable for a little while. The funny thing about Ukrainians is they love giving advice, expecially concerning health. I've been told to eat garlic, drink tea with honey, buy mysterious nose drops (with the warning, "The drops kind of burn"), and--most oddly--boil potatoes in their skins and then breathe in the steam. Instead, I took some Dayquil in the morning and got a lot of sleep in the night. That seemed to work pretty well.
Well, my watch broke recently, which is too bad. It's served me very well. Unfortunately, it broke really really badly, thanks to all of the train travel (think: first watch band broke, then heavy suitcase dropped on it). Thankfully, watches here are pretty cheap, so I'll be picking one of those up today. There's always something...
The weather hasn't been that bad recently. It's pretty easy to believe that it's worse in Boise than here (but it's probably best at Disneyland, as Renee's family would probably be glad to tell us).
All right, that's about all the time I have this week. I love you all!
--Elder Hurst
On exchanges in Voskresensky (Feb 20, 2008)
Hello again everyone! This week I'm actually spending quite a bit of time in Kyiv; my last companion, Elder Palsky, went home on Monday, and my next companion, my trainee, isn't coming until Thursday, so I've kind of been in mission limbo this week. I've been on exchanges with Elder Ledbetter in Voskresensky, which is the area where I started my mission. It's been a lot of fun--this whole transfer has been a sort of reintroduction to my first two areas. All I need to do now is go down to Kharkivsky and over to Sviatoshinsky and I'll have gone full circle. Serving with Elder Ledbetter is cool also. We were in the same district for a transfer when I was in Sviatoshinksy. He's a lot of fun, and a really good missionary.
So, apparently there's a lot of new missionaries coming in, because it seems like everyone I know is training, including Elder Ledbetter and Elder Stagg and several others. I'll also be district leader again, which will be fun. Plus, since we have a senior couple with us, I get a cell phone, which is VERY cool.
Well, unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of time today, so I have to go already. I love you all, and I hope everything's going well for everyone!
Love,
--Elder Hurst
So, apparently there's a lot of new missionaries coming in, because it seems like everyone I know is training, including Elder Ledbetter and Elder Stagg and several others. I'll also be district leader again, which will be fun. Plus, since we have a senior couple with us, I get a cell phone, which is VERY cool.
Well, unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of time today, so I have to go already. I love you all, and I hope everything's going well for everyone!
Love,
--Elder Hurst
The worth of souls and the worth of families (Feb 13, 2008)
Hello again everyone! This week we had a really cool experience. In fact, it's probably one of the best experiences of my mission to this point.
We have these two investigators, Oksana and Ruslan, who are a young married couple whose marriage was entirely on the rocks--so much so that Oksana was close to buying a second apartment, and divorce was looming very near on the horizon. We really wanted to help them, but we had no idea how; so, while writing my weekly letter to President Davis (we write these each week to update him on the area, our investigators, our companionship, etc.) I asked him for advice. On Friday morning we received a phone call from President Davis himself in response to my email. He told us to talk about how a marriage is like a triangle, with the husband and wife each being one of the two corners at the bottom, and the corner at the top being the Lord. The closer they come to the Savior, the closer they come to each other, and visa versa. That same evening we stopped by and caught the entire family at home. Before we began, they spoke about divorce as though it was a definite and unalterable certainty; after we finished our lesson, they were talking about ways they could save the marriage, including a commitment from us to read the Book of Mormon and have family prayer every day (with their son, Yulian, in charge of making sure they do it). We ended with each of us taking turns and saying a prayer on our knees; I believe it may have been the most spiritual lesson I’ve had so far (in fact, the feeling I had afterwards I could compare only to being in the celestial room in a temple). We returned on Saturday to find the situation tangled up again (Oksana was planning on going on a date with someone who wasn't exactly Ruslan), but thanks to another very spiritual lesson where we sang hymns and prayed in turn again, the tangle was—thankfully—released. On Sunday we went on exchanges, so Elder Lewis and I went to a little village for the day while Elder Palsky and Elder Hokanson stayed behind. The entire family went to sacrament meeting, and then Elders Palsky and Hokanson visited them to find that they were doing very well; in fact, during the lesson Oksana and Ruslan promised each other that they would stay married. I've realized just how important families really are through this experience. If the Lord loves this family enough to have poured out His Spirit as strong as He did, as often as He did, then the importance of families must be significantly large, far larger than I had considered previously.
Things are going great here! I love you all, and I hope you all have a good week!
--Elder Hurst
We have these two investigators, Oksana and Ruslan, who are a young married couple whose marriage was entirely on the rocks--so much so that Oksana was close to buying a second apartment, and divorce was looming very near on the horizon. We really wanted to help them, but we had no idea how; so, while writing my weekly letter to President Davis (we write these each week to update him on the area, our investigators, our companionship, etc.) I asked him for advice. On Friday morning we received a phone call from President Davis himself in response to my email. He told us to talk about how a marriage is like a triangle, with the husband and wife each being one of the two corners at the bottom, and the corner at the top being the Lord. The closer they come to the Savior, the closer they come to each other, and visa versa. That same evening we stopped by and caught the entire family at home. Before we began, they spoke about divorce as though it was a definite and unalterable certainty; after we finished our lesson, they were talking about ways they could save the marriage, including a commitment from us to read the Book of Mormon and have family prayer every day (with their son, Yulian, in charge of making sure they do it). We ended with each of us taking turns and saying a prayer on our knees; I believe it may have been the most spiritual lesson I’ve had so far (in fact, the feeling I had afterwards I could compare only to being in the celestial room in a temple). We returned on Saturday to find the situation tangled up again (Oksana was planning on going on a date with someone who wasn't exactly Ruslan), but thanks to another very spiritual lesson where we sang hymns and prayed in turn again, the tangle was—thankfully—released. On Sunday we went on exchanges, so Elder Lewis and I went to a little village for the day while Elder Palsky and Elder Hokanson stayed behind. The entire family went to sacrament meeting, and then Elders Palsky and Hokanson visited them to find that they were doing very well; in fact, during the lesson Oksana and Ruslan promised each other that they would stay married. I've realized just how important families really are through this experience. If the Lord loves this family enough to have poured out His Spirit as strong as He did, as often as He did, then the importance of families must be significantly large, far larger than I had considered previously.
Things are going great here! I love you all, and I hope you all have a good week!
--Elder Hurst
Big news (again), and more pictures! (Feb 6 2008)
Hello again everyone! As you can see, I remembered to bring my camera cord with me this week, so I've attached a few pictures from the past two weeks. We did some service at an orphanage a little ways away where we had a little presentation, gave away books for the kids to read (the children's scriptures picture books that the Church produces), and just talked with the kids. It was a lot of fun, but kind of depressing; Ukrainian orphanages, believe it or not, aren't the most upbeat-looking places. I was amazed to see how many of the kids just walked around with blood smeared on their faces around their noses! It's really sad. I don't know if they're sick, if they get in fights, or what, but it's a tragedy in any case. It was really sad, because everyone wanted to shake the Americans' hands afterward, but we had been warned quite well not to do that; instead we did the goofy "pound it" thing where you punch your fists together.
So, I heard some interesting news recently. It's about 90% certain that this coming transfer (this is week 4, so there's still two weeks or so) I will be training again. Also, if the information I've received is reliable, his name is Elder Horne, which means that in every training-related situation I've been in, all missionaries involved have had last names starting with "H." I, Elder Hurst, was trained by Elder Hanson, and then I trained Elder Higgins and now, possibly, Elder Horne. I sense a trend.
I think I'm also going to be district leader again next transfer, which is a little frightening because President Davis is planning on visiting Ivano next transfer for hardcore visits with all of the less active members, and rumor has it he'll be doing this while on exchanges with the district leader. Yikes. Talk about being on your BEST behavior.
Well, that's my week. I hope you all had a good one as well! And in case anyone's thinking of what to do for a certain day in early March, I need some time to think, but I know for certain that I wouldn't mind getting a book called something along the lines of "Temples and the Cosmos" by Hugh Nibley. Also, I don't know how hard or easy this is to find, but I wouldn't mind reading "The House of the Lord" by James E. Talmage. Anyway, I'll write back next week with more practical things. Thanks!
I love you all, and have a great week!
--Elder Hurst
So, I heard some interesting news recently. It's about 90% certain that this coming transfer (this is week 4, so there's still two weeks or so) I will be training again. Also, if the information I've received is reliable, his name is Elder Horne, which means that in every training-related situation I've been in, all missionaries involved have had last names starting with "H." I, Elder Hurst, was trained by Elder Hanson, and then I trained Elder Higgins and now, possibly, Elder Horne. I sense a trend.
I think I'm also going to be district leader again next transfer, which is a little frightening because President Davis is planning on visiting Ivano next transfer for hardcore visits with all of the less active members, and rumor has it he'll be doing this while on exchanges with the district leader. Yikes. Talk about being on your BEST behavior.
Well, that's my week. I hope you all had a good one as well! And in case anyone's thinking of what to do for a certain day in early March, I need some time to think, but I know for certain that I wouldn't mind getting a book called something along the lines of "Temples and the Cosmos" by Hugh Nibley. Also, I don't know how hard or easy this is to find, but I wouldn't mind reading "The House of the Lord" by James E. Talmage. Anyway, I'll write back next week with more practical things. Thanks!
I love you all, and have a great week!
--Elder Hurst
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