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.
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
My little family grows... (Feb 27, 2008)
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
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
Khrystos narodyvsya! (Slavuyemo yoho!) 1/30/08
Hello again, everyone! I hope everyone had a good week. As I’m sure you all heard (probably long before we heard), President Hinckley passed away this last Sunday. The only Prophet that I can actually remember has just passed one from this life to the next. It’s interesting to me how this works. Before my mission, despite having a firm knowledge of the Gospel and the Plan of Salvation, I was still very upset over death; to my thinking at that time, death may not have necessarily been the absolute end of existence, but it certainly appeared so, and that troubled me. However, in the past year I’ve been able to realize more clearly than ever before that the departure from this life of a loved one—for example, a beloved Prophet—is about as final as the departure of someone from their living room. Though they may not be with us on this plane of existence, yet will they be with us in the future, and if that be so, then why should we mourn? President Hinckley isn’t gone; he’s just one step ahead of us on the Plan of Salvation. We’ll catch up in time.
This has been a good week. This week we sat down during our weekly planning and counted out our total teaching pool, and we reached the total of 15 investigators. 15! Bear in mind that in my last week or two in Sviatoshinsky, that number was 3. Our main investigators are:
MARYANA, a 25 to 30 year old girl who’s met with missionaries before and is very, very close to a baptismal commitment for February 16—her birthday. The only thing holding her back is her boyfriend, who disapproves of the Church because the Church disapproves of his intentions with Maryana. We’re not big fans of him.
OKSANA and RUSLAN, a 30’s-ish couple with several small children. Oksana works at a beauty salon, and Ruslan’s a taxi driver. They’re both really nice and really cool; they’ll be ready for baptismal commitments as soon as they settle a little marital trouble they’ve hit this past week.
VOLODYMYR, a late 50’s-ish man who loves feeling the Spirit, but hasn’t quite overcome his Greek Catholic traditional background. He’s so close! We just need to get over this last little hurdle, and he’ll be golden.
We had a fun day today. For our P-Day, we chose a random village on our map and went there for a picnic lunch and a game of Risk by the side of a frozen river. It was really cool, really pretty and a lot of fun, and not only because I won at Risk (dominated, actually, may be a better term). Among the more memorable moments happened when we were on the way to this village (its name is Pereshinske, by the way). We were packed on a marshrutka full of people, one of whom had brought his pet black lab. The dog was really friendly and nice, and one of us missionaries, Elder Hokanson, decided to take a picture of it. I was sitting two people over from Elder Hokanson, and so I couldn’t see exactly what happened, but I definitely heard the distinct “Hack!” noise as the dog vomited all over Elder Hokanson’s leg and shoe. Now, unfortunately I don’t have my camera cables with me this week, because Hokanson took a priceless picture of his knee covered in the slimy remnants of Ukrainian dog food (mysteriously found to contain a tomato slice), with a very sick looking doggy face staring at the camera. Remind me next week and I’ll send it…
Well, that’s all for this week. I love you all, and I’ll write again next Wednesday!
This has been a good week. This week we sat down during our weekly planning and counted out our total teaching pool, and we reached the total of 15 investigators. 15! Bear in mind that in my last week or two in Sviatoshinsky, that number was 3. Our main investigators are:
MARYANA, a 25 to 30 year old girl who’s met with missionaries before and is very, very close to a baptismal commitment for February 16—her birthday. The only thing holding her back is her boyfriend, who disapproves of the Church because the Church disapproves of his intentions with Maryana. We’re not big fans of him.
OKSANA and RUSLAN, a 30’s-ish couple with several small children. Oksana works at a beauty salon, and Ruslan’s a taxi driver. They’re both really nice and really cool; they’ll be ready for baptismal commitments as soon as they settle a little marital trouble they’ve hit this past week.
VOLODYMYR, a late 50’s-ish man who loves feeling the Spirit, but hasn’t quite overcome his Greek Catholic traditional background. He’s so close! We just need to get over this last little hurdle, and he’ll be golden.
We had a fun day today. For our P-Day, we chose a random village on our map and went there for a picnic lunch and a game of Risk by the side of a frozen river. It was really cool, really pretty and a lot of fun, and not only because I won at Risk (dominated, actually, may be a better term). Among the more memorable moments happened when we were on the way to this village (its name is Pereshinske, by the way). We were packed on a marshrutka full of people, one of whom had brought his pet black lab. The dog was really friendly and nice, and one of us missionaries, Elder Hokanson, decided to take a picture of it. I was sitting two people over from Elder Hokanson, and so I couldn’t see exactly what happened, but I definitely heard the distinct “Hack!” noise as the dog vomited all over Elder Hokanson’s leg and shoe. Now, unfortunately I don’t have my camera cables with me this week, because Hokanson took a priceless picture of his knee covered in the slimy remnants of Ukrainian dog food (mysteriously found to contain a tomato slice), with a very sick looking doggy face staring at the camera. Remind me next week and I’ll send it…Well, that’s all for this week. I love you all, and I’ll write again next Wednesday!
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