Hello again everyone from chilly Ukraine! The weather hasn't been as freezing cold as one would expect from Ukraine, but it has been really annoying lately. It shifts a lot from being sunny and almost warm, to being overcast and with snow flurries. The snow never sticks, but it's a little disheartening to look out the window of our apartment and see a bright spring day, then walk outside two minutes later and into winter again. The weather in Ukraine is notorious for changing quickly, but I've found it's actually pretty predictable. You see, you can always 100% accurately tell when the sun is going to be out--it's always when I'm inside. Especially if I'm sitting near a window.
Well, as you may have noticed, this email's a day late. That's because yesterday President Davis came to Ivano to have a lot of interviews with members of the branch, and we were on hand to help him and the elder from our senior couple, Elder Hinckle, with their work (especially translation). We had our president's interviews also, and during it President Davis basically told us our plans for the next several transfers. I'll be staying in Ivano another two transfers (so about three more months) before I'll get transfered somewhere and be a zone leader. (He wouldn't tell me where I'd go because he wanted something to still be a surprise). The other set of elders will be moving out, so it's just going to be me and my new companion, Elder Budge, and the Hinckles still. It's going to make transfer time a little less exciting, but it's always interesting to find out about the future. I think it might be because President Davis is nearing the end of his mission. I think that around the time I'll become a zone leader, he'll be going home. I'm pretty glad that I got a three-month notice on the zone leader thing, because it makes me a little less nervous about it.
Things are going well for us here. The work is going forward, and next transfer we're going to inherit all the work of the other elders in addition to our own. In other words, we're going to be very, very busy.
I love you all, and I hope you have a good week!
Bridges in Blizzards and the Infamous Fidget Smelly (3/19/08)
Hello again everyone! We had a pretty good week, although it was overall pretty ordinary. We got to go to a selo on Friday for a meeting with an investigator (selo being Ukrainian for "village," by the way); we rode a marshrutka for about two and a half hours, only to arrive and see him at the bus stop waiting for a marshrutka to another selo an hour and a half away. So, we talked for about ten minutes until his marshrutka came, ate lunch, and then waited to go home. Usually when people stand us up on meetings it's no big deal, but if it requires five hours of total travel time, it kind of becomes a little more frustrating. We were kind of sick of sitting on marshrutkas by the end of the day.
I've been getting several compliments on my Ukrainian recently, which is surprising because I still feel like I'm brand new at it. I had one man on a marshrutka ask me which selo I was from, and our landlord, after overhearing me speak to my companion a little in Ukrainian, asked me what my native language was. I told him English, and he didn't believe me. Another guy told me that I spoke as well as my last companion, who was finishing his mission and had therefore been studying the language for a lot longer than I had. Our last zone conference was done entirely in the language, and ever since then my current comp has been telling me that I speak Ukrainian better than just about any other missionary there. Yeah, i hear that, and then I always remember every single moment from the past week where I'll try explaining something simple (for example, getting a contract stamped) and all I'll see are blank stares.
I finally included some more pictures, as you can see. The one of the bridge is actually from about a month ago. Elder Palsky and I went to a selo called Yaseniv, and about five minutes after we got there, a blizzard started. I don't know if it was technically an actual "blizzard," but if it wasn't, then it was dang close. The town had two parts, a normal small town on one side of the river with roads and stores, and then a REALLY small village on the other side called Verkhny Yaseniv, with cottages and small farms clinging to the side of a Carpathian mountain, and all that connected the two were about three rope and wood plank bridges. It was really cool, and also really cold. (Yeah, that's me on the bridge). (And, by the way, there's a big mountain in the background of the picture, but there's so much snow...you can't see it).
The second picture is of a menu at a place Elder Horne and I ate at yesterday. The menu had English translations under the Ukrainian names, and a few of them were a little odd. There's a few interesting ones in the picture, but my personal favorite is #5. The last picture is a picture of my study journal. If there's one thing I've become prideful of, it's my personal studies (apparently I need to study the fall of the Nephites a little more...). Last transfer especially, I finally started finding out how to study the scriptures very in-depth. These pages are a study of D&C 88, with a little aside in D&C 93 at the beginning. (Elder Hinckle, by the way, is a senior missionary in Ivano who knows a lot about a lot; there's a little aside in there also where I asked him a question and then took notes on his answer).
Well, I love you all and I hope you all have a good week!
Love,
--Elder Hurst
I've been getting several compliments on my Ukrainian recently, which is surprising because I still feel like I'm brand new at it. I had one man on a marshrutka ask me which selo I was from, and our landlord, after overhearing me speak to my companion a little in Ukrainian, asked me what my native language was. I told him English, and he didn't believe me. Another guy told me that I spoke as well as my last companion, who was finishing his mission and had therefore been studying the language for a lot longer than I had. Our last zone conference was done entirely in the language, and ever since then my current comp has been telling me that I speak Ukrainian better than just about any other missionary there. Yeah, i hear that, and then I always remember every single moment from the past week where I'll try explaining something simple (for example, getting a contract stamped) and all I'll see are blank stares.
I finally included some more pictures, as you can see. The one of the bridge is actually from about a month ago. Elder Palsky and I went to a selo called Yaseniv, and about five minutes after we got there, a blizzard started. I don't know if it was technically an actual "blizzard," but if it wasn't, then it was dang close. The town had two parts, a normal small town on one side of the river with roads and stores, and then a REALLY small village on the other side called Verkhny Yaseniv, with cottages and small farms clinging to the side of a Carpathian mountain, and all that connected the two were about three rope and wood plank bridges. It was really cool, and also really cold. (Yeah, that's me on the bridge). (And, by the way, there's a big mountain in the background of the picture, but there's so much snow...you can't see it).
The second picture is of a menu at a place Elder Horne and I ate at yesterday. The menu had English translations under the Ukrainian names, and a few of them were a little odd. There's a few interesting ones in the picture, but my personal favorite is #5. The last picture is a picture of my study journal. If there's one thing I've become prideful of, it's my personal studies (apparently I need to study the fall of the Nephites a little more...). Last transfer especially, I finally started finding out how to study the scriptures very in-depth. These pages are a study of D&C 88, with a little aside in D&C 93 at the beginning. (Elder Hinckle, by the way, is a senior missionary in Ivano who knows a lot about a lot; there's a little aside in there also where I asked him a question and then took notes on his answer).
Well, I love you all and I hope you all have a good week!
Love,
--Elder Hurst
Another week down (Mar 12, 2008)
Hello everyone! Thank you for all of your emails. I hope everyone’s having a good week. By the way, Mom, that’s bizarre that Chris Barry is engaged! I don’t believe it. Everyone I knew is so old…
We had a great week. Our investigator, Natalya (who used to be desperately out of work, but now has a little job to get by on while she finds something else) is VERY close to baptism; all she wants to do now is see a baptism firsthand and see what it’ll be like. We had a powerful first lesson with her where we spoke about the apostasy especially, discussing the implications of the apostasy in general and, most importantly, to her personally. We read Ephesians 2:19-20 and I drew a picture where a church building was built on a foundation labeled “Apostles and Prophets,” with Christ as the cornerstone. (This is a very common teaching tool, by the way). As we talked about the apostasy, we crossed off the words “Apostles” and “Prophets.” We then talked about how Christ leads his church through revelation to his prophets and apostles; so, without them, Christ’s presence isn’t in the church. We then crossed out His name. We talked about how without a foundation, a building can’t stand, and it was the same with the church. Other people tried to rebuild the church, but they tried to do so without that foundation; their buildings won’t stand either. Then, as we talked about the restoration, we talked about how Christ restored prophets and apostles. He speaks to them through revelation, and they are again the foundation of the church. We then told her that the other churches formed are made up of very good people, who for the most part believe very strongly in God, and who do very good things for other people. God loves them just like He loves all of His children, and His plan will save them as well. But in order to receive exaltation, the highest form of salvation—in order to live with God Himself, just as we did before this life and just as we all agreed that we want to, we need His church, with His foundation, and His authority to offer the necessary ordinances.
In other news, I’ve been trying to improve my ability to cook, since my ability right now is hovering around zero. This past week, I’ve made pancakes and French toast, both of which turned out to actually be pretty good. It made for a good change from my usual two breakfasts—cereal or scrambled eggs.
Well, unfortunately we haven’t been to a village recently, but hopefully this Friday we’ll be meeting with an investigator who lives about two and a half hours away. It should be pretty fun. The name of his village is Vorokhta, which sounds kind of like it could be a Klingon word from Star Trek. Actually, there’s a lot of villages that sound more like Klingon words than anything else.
I love you all! Thank you for everything, and I’ll write you again next week!
--Elder Hurst
PS – In case anyone didn’t understand the title of my last email, “Life: 21, Elder Hurst: 0” is supposed to be like a score. It was supposed to be funny.
We had a great week. Our investigator, Natalya (who used to be desperately out of work, but now has a little job to get by on while she finds something else) is VERY close to baptism; all she wants to do now is see a baptism firsthand and see what it’ll be like. We had a powerful first lesson with her where we spoke about the apostasy especially, discussing the implications of the apostasy in general and, most importantly, to her personally. We read Ephesians 2:19-20 and I drew a picture where a church building was built on a foundation labeled “Apostles and Prophets,” with Christ as the cornerstone. (This is a very common teaching tool, by the way). As we talked about the apostasy, we crossed off the words “Apostles” and “Prophets.” We then talked about how Christ leads his church through revelation to his prophets and apostles; so, without them, Christ’s presence isn’t in the church. We then crossed out His name. We talked about how without a foundation, a building can’t stand, and it was the same with the church. Other people tried to rebuild the church, but they tried to do so without that foundation; their buildings won’t stand either. Then, as we talked about the restoration, we talked about how Christ restored prophets and apostles. He speaks to them through revelation, and they are again the foundation of the church. We then told her that the other churches formed are made up of very good people, who for the most part believe very strongly in God, and who do very good things for other people. God loves them just like He loves all of His children, and His plan will save them as well. But in order to receive exaltation, the highest form of salvation—in order to live with God Himself, just as we did before this life and just as we all agreed that we want to, we need His church, with His foundation, and His authority to offer the necessary ordinances.
In other news, I’ve been trying to improve my ability to cook, since my ability right now is hovering around zero. This past week, I’ve made pancakes and French toast, both of which turned out to actually be pretty good. It made for a good change from my usual two breakfasts—cereal or scrambled eggs.
Well, unfortunately we haven’t been to a village recently, but hopefully this Friday we’ll be meeting with an investigator who lives about two and a half hours away. It should be pretty fun. The name of his village is Vorokhta, which sounds kind of like it could be a Klingon word from Star Trek. Actually, there’s a lot of villages that sound more like Klingon words than anything else.
I love you all! Thank you for everything, and I’ll write you again next week!
--Elder Hurst
PS – In case anyone didn’t understand the title of my last email, “Life: 21, Elder Hurst: 0” is supposed to be like a score. It was supposed to be funny.
Life: 21, Elder Hurst: 0 (Mar 5 2008)
Hello again family! It’s been a good week, and in large part that may be because of my birthday on Sunday! It’s interesting how birthdays work for missionaries; except for our elders quorum spontaneously singing the Ukrainian version of “Happy Birthday” (literally, just the English words “Happy Birthday to You,” but with a thick Ukrainian accent—“Khappy boorzday to you!”), the rest of the day was…just like any other. That evening, in fact, was spent pleading with some of our investigators to save their marriage. Oksana and Ruslan, about whom I’ve written a few weeks ago, are once again on the verge of falling to the divorce wolves; this time, because Oksana feels that Ruslan hasn’t been showing her enough love, and so she’s going to run away with her lover and start a second family. She tried justifying it by saying that her second family would join the church, but we reminded her that her current family is pretty close to joining, and that if she breaks apart this family unit—especially by means of adultery—that’s not serving God’s will, by any stretch of the imagination.
In happier news, we’ve been having some Iraqi guys come to our English classes, and they’re cool. One of them is from Fallujah (that name should ring a bell), and apparently that city’s calmed down a lot. The other guy’s from Baghdad. They’re really funny guys. Actually, all people I’ve met from Iraq and Iran are really cool guys. Even the Iraqis who don’t like Americans—far and away the minority—are really nice about it. I have a lot of respect for people from the Middle East. I would LOVE to go visit there one day.
Well, that’s how my week’s been going. I love you all, and I’ll write again next week!
--Elder Hurst
In happier news, we’ve been having some Iraqi guys come to our English classes, and they’re cool. One of them is from Fallujah (that name should ring a bell), and apparently that city’s calmed down a lot. The other guy’s from Baghdad. They’re really funny guys. Actually, all people I’ve met from Iraq and Iran are really cool guys. Even the Iraqis who don’t like Americans—far and away the minority—are really nice about it. I have a lot of respect for people from the Middle East. I would LOVE to go visit there one day.
Well, that’s how my week’s been going. I love you all, and I’ll write again next week!
--Elder Hurst
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