Yeah it is blazing hot here. I actually got heat exhaustion a few days ago. I am better now, and they are sending us an AC unit from Dnepr. If the heat wasnt bad enough we ran out of drinking water, and so we have been living from bottle to bottle here. IT has been tough pickings contacting with it being so hot, so we have converted to tracting,(with the hope we will be able to sit in someones nice air conditioned home) that hasnt turned out a whole lot of sucess yet, but we will stick to it.
Mini rant: I am losing my english. Success has two c's and two s's, there are many other words like this that I can no longer spell, Colege wil be realy fun.
Lena is still smoking and we may need to drop her if she cannot quit. There is not much we can do at this point, I dont feel like she actually wants to quit.
While tracting yesterday I learned something: HOw to deal with JWs, or any other person who "knows" the bible. TO preface: Elder Biesinger and I have been studying the bible like crazy lately, there is a large well from which the Holy ghost can draw to help us teach people. But sometimes people dont want to be taught by 2 18 year old young men(understandable, what do we know anyway?) Well we tracted into a JW, and we started off friendly, and normal. We gave him a restoration pamphlet, I could tell due to the questions he was asking that he was a JW, and so we started talking. HE rejected our ideas and instituted some of his own claiming "I only read the clean bible" So we had a bible bash, we tried at several points to invite the spirit, but he wouldnt have it. After kicking his butt from Genesis to Revelations, we left. What did I learn: If they say no to a prayer, or try to rebuke what you are saying rather than listen, it is not worth your time. Bible bashing gets you no where, even when you win, you still lose because that took 30 minutes, and there are 40 more doors to knock on.
I love you all! If there is anything you can do to help right now, it would be to Pray that the people of Ukraine will soften their hearts, and that the missionaries here will be able to help them!
We had a pretty full week!
The biggest thing was me and dad having our anniversary trip. I sent a ton of pictures of it. We flew into portland oregon on Tuesday night. We drove the next day to multonova falls. It was beautiful. It's just about 20 minutes east of portland. Then we headed west to the coast. We stopped at Cannon beach. It's the picture on the ocean with the giant rock. That is called Haystack rock. During low tide there are a ton of tide pools that you can see all sorts of sea creatures. There was a ton of Jelly fish washed up on shore too. Then we drove down to Newport Oregon beach. We stayed the night there right on the ocean. It was so pretty. The sunset was amazing.
The next day we drove to Crater Lake. Hands down the prettiest lake me and dad have ever seen! It was royal blue and just breath taking. You have to hike a mile down to it and then hike back up. The guy said, "Its a mile down and feels like 10 miles coming back up". He was right! It was worth it though. Then we drove past a couple small water falls and on to Mount Shasta. We stayed overnight in a lodge there.
The next day we headed on the long to Burney Falls. It was so spectacular. That hike was much easier as well. Then we drove to Ferndale and stayed in a victorian Bed and Breakfast. It was the cutest little town. We loved it. The street was all old victorian buildings. The cemetery was super creepy with graves above ground. That night we saw a woman at the bar and she was from Russia. I talked to her a bit and showed her pictures of you in Ukraine. She thought it was awesome that you were doing it.
The next morning we drove to the Redwood Forest. Wow...the trees were unbelievable. No way to even describe it. There were miles of forest through california, but the trees in the Redwoods were crazy big. We were able to do more hiking through that. Then we drove to Glass beach. It is a beach that over 100 years ago the towns people would throw their trash over the cliffs into the ocean. They did it for years until in the 1920's they made them stop. They were able to clean up a lot of the garbage, but all the glass was everywhere. Over the last 100 years the beach has become a beautiful beach covered in sea glass. There was more glass creating the beach than sand or rocks. It was so pretty. After that we drove the rest of the way to Oakland California.
Today we woke up to an alarm going off in the building and had to be evacuated. Luckily it was a false alarm. We had a leisurely morning and then got some lunch at a cute moroccan restaurant and then went to the Oakland Temple until leaving for the airport.
It was such a great trip. We drove between 4-7 hours everyday. We loved every minute of it. I'm so glad we went.
The kids were able to play with baby deer yesterday at one of Grandma/pa's friends house. Mike and keely watched them for us. There is a new pokemon go game out...it's gone crazy in just a week and EVERYONE is playing it. Well the kids were playing it and went on a walk. Josh, Jacob and Jordy. They were down by the Russel's house and some dude was out across the street. He started yelling at the kids wondering if they were playing it. He threatened them that he has a gun in his pocket and would shoot them if they got on his property. He got up in Josh's face and apparently dropped too many F Bomb to count. Jacob and Jord were terrified. Mike had to call the police and they did a report. I'm super bugged and am going to do some more about it tomorrow. Who does that? I guess he was drunk.
We also had some tragic neighborhood news yesterday.
Tacie Sorenson (janika's sister that is Cam's age) was hit by a truck yesterday in front of her house and killed. It was just awful as you can imagine. Everyone is really sad, it has shaken the whole neighborhood. The family is holding up ok, but I'm sure it will be rough. Poor Cam cried quite a bit when I told him. It was really sad. I know they could use extra prayers. If you want I can get Janika's email if you would like to send a note to her. Let me know.
Sorry to have to tell you something so sad.
Fun news was that Grandma and Grandpa saw Trevor at the MTC several times. I told them to watch for him and Granma was like, "I don't think we will recognize him". I said, "he is 6' 5" and has red hair...I think he will be easy to spot". Lisa was so excited to get that picture of him.
Questions for the day-
1-Are they going to change your mission name from the Ukraine Dnepropetrovsk mission to the Ukraine Dneiper mission?
2-How are you doing? Happy, positive? Are you enjoying Sumy and E. B.?
3-How are you celebrating E. B. birthday?
4-Did he get his birthday package? I'm thinking you guys will get your packages together.
5-Please tell me that Lena stopped smoking and is getting or got baptized!!!???
6-Do you want Janika's email?
7-Is there anything I can do for you?
8-Are you still loving Sumy or are you hoping for a change next time?
9-Is there something wrong with your camera? Why aren't you sending many pictures?
10-Is Vika still getting married? She took all the pics of him and her off Facebook all the sudden.
11-I love the recordings...keep them coming. I love when I can hear E.B. laughing in the background!!! Send more.
12-It was Ethan's birthday so give him a shout out.
13-Will your mission be getting more missionaries soon?
14-Special message for me.
I love you so much and really miss you! Sometimes I can't believe I have survived this long without you. I am really proud of you for serving a mission. With you, Dakkon and G&G out, I'm a little jealous. I want to go out and serve a mission now too.
We are all doing good. G&G leave Sat. for Fiji. We will miss them, but we will survive. Thanks for being amazing. I love you.
Love mom
Wow sounds like you did a lot of stuff. THose TREES ARE HUGE!! I cant even believe it! Lots of pretty places, I am sure you and dad had a good time. I dont know if they will change the name, we say Dneper now anyways. I am doing well, my work out watch broke and I want to get a nice one that wont ever break. I love Sumy and EB. He doesnt like celebrating his birthday, but I made him let me buy watermelon(Which I like now) and I am trying to pull something with the members to get a surprise bday party for him, but its not looking like it will work. He didnt get it yet, but as soon as someone comes back from Dnepr we will have it. Lena still hasnt quit, and cannot be baptized, Thursday is the Do or Die day for her, she will really have to choose. Yes send me her email and tell her I love her. Give me permission to buy a good workout watch and thatll do it for me:) Camera works, I just am still sad that elder biesingers camera is better. I have a ton to send today. Yeah I dont know if it is still happening, she got a little irritated when I asked about it, but she is doing okay. I dont know if we will get more missionaries soon.
I love you so much mom and that trip was way cool! What is the Pokemon game? and what is the big deal with the guy? I will find him, and I will find him, and I will say scary things in Russian to him, and if he was drunk, then I know exactly how to deal with that. I will send that birthday shout out to him.
I am so happy you are my mom, and I cant wait to be back home. I love all of you so much and I know we will be a family forever.
So can I buy the watch or no? Elder biesinger is getting one today, it could be like a birthday present, please respond to this!
Yes!! Love You!!
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