So we had a stalker this week. The night before we left to Poltava for an Exchange, our little cute old door lady says, "A big guy was looking for you he left his name(Andre) and phone number, he was a sportsman maybe he wants to recruite you"(She sees us go out to Run often) I said thanks and put the note in my pocket, kind of disturbed, people I dont know shouldnt know where I live, that is a threat to our safety. I didnt call that night and we left for Poltava.
While in poltava we had a good time. I was supposed to be with Elder Jeffery but I ended up with Elder Ustin(From Belarus) and Elder Bates(Yay former companion!) for most of the Exchange. Me and Elder Ustin sat in the Poltava branch while Eldrs Biesinger and Jeffery went to go get registered by the government. Hes pretty cool, he already has a degree, and he knows what he is doing with anything that runs off electricity. With Elder Bates we taught an Investigator in Poltava who saw a TV show about Salt Lake City and saw MOrmons and wants to be baptized and make a blog to advertise the Church more widly in Ukraine. THen we went home.
Our Door lady comes out and said there was a very large man looking for us. I was a little bit scared because in Ukraine, Very large means VERY LARGE. I remembered about Andre. I called him and he was thrilled. He wants to learn English, not rip our arms off, I was relieved.
We met with him and he is the Ukrainian "Master of Sports" many of his friends are also proffesional sports men, one is an amazing wrestler. ANdre is a power lifter. He picks heavy things up and puts them down. He offered to train us at the gym he works at. We said we will get back to you on that.
WE have had the opprotunity to give him the Book of Mormon and he is reading it in English and Russian. We have Faith that the power of the book will touch him. His wife is also a trainer that works at the same gym, we saw her today. THey are not living together because they dont understand eachother. We hope we can strengthen their marriage. Andre is HUGE. 6'3" and 110 kilograms of Pure Muscle. He placed Second In Ukraines National Powerlifting tournament. If he wanted to he really could tear our arms off. Thankfully he really likes us.
WE worked out at his Gym this morning, and he secretly trained us. Ill get a picture with him this week for you all.
Tamara is doing well and still wants to get Baptized so that is good.
Lena came to conference yesterday and she is still pretty strong.
LOVE YOU!
Hey buddy,
Your email last week was awesome! You sound so good and so happy and so positive. It does my heart good to hear that you love Ukraine so much and love the people! I'm so proud of you, but I am so happy that you are enjoying it! I'm sure it's hard, all things in this life that are worth it are hard! But to be able to find joy in the journey is such a blessing. I know that not all missionaries are able to do that. I am so glad you can!
We have had a busy week. I sent a bunch of photos of it. We are all doing well. On Monday I took Cam to the ENT. They are going to order a swallow study to see why he is choking. He also said that his salivary gland will most likely remain an issue for a while. He was hopeful that eventually it will go away on it's own, but thinks it's likely that it will continue to get infected serval times before he stops getting it completely. If it continues to progress and become more frequently then we will have to look at surgical options. That is at the bottom of the list right now. The swallow study should be fairly simple. They just take X-ray of him swallowing different things to figure out where the problem is.
Jacob got his braces off. He won't get them back on until he is 16-17 so that he can have a chance of not having to do a third set like you will have too. Interesting that you and him both got Daddy Jake's jaw, but not Jordy and Josh.
The youth had their annual fall festival for the primary. We had a lot of fun. IT was weird that Jacob was there as one of the young men and not one of the primary kids. The primary program is at the end of the month.
The district is recommending that Jordy be placed in a Communication Academic cluster unit at Oquirrh Hills middle school. The bus would pick him up and bring him home. He was originally throwing a fit about any change, but Josh and I have been working on him and he seems more open to it. We pointed out that he will be able to be super popular in high school because he will know all the kids from both schools. This tuesday Jordy and I are both going to the school to observe and then we will make the final decision. Prayers for us to make the right decision would be very welcome!
Josh went to a party last night and a girl told him that she liked him. When I said he should just say, "Thanks, that is really nice, we should go on a date sometime." He said I don't understand how complicated it is. It's not that simple;)
Kaestli is getting super smart. She is reading really well and doing awesome in school. She almost has her backbend and kickover by herself in tumbling.
BYU finally won and had a good game. Well, they had a good second half of a game really...the first half was pitiful. Dad and I got a smoker and so Dad make a brisket yesterday. We smoked it for 12 hours. It was super yummy. We got a bunch of yard work done yesterday and winterized the yard/pool area. Dad still hadn't seen jungle book so we had a family movie night after our chores last night and watched it.
Friday night me and dad went to dinner with Elder Besinger's parents. It was a ton of fun. We met at 6:30 and ended up talking until 10:00. His parents are great! Julie and I are seriously kindred spirits!
I loved the video of you and EV in your apartment. That was awesome. Dakkon is doing better. He sent me a message last week, but not a group one and not one to dad either. But he sounds better and more positive.
I love you and miss you so much! You are just the best! Stay happy and positive and do your best always. Know that perfection is never expected or required. Just do your best and strive to be better everyday. I love you!
Questions-
1-Still happy and positive?
2-Any word on the new arrivals or transfers?
3-Where did you watch conference and with who?
4-What was your favorite thing about conference?
5-How are your investigators doing?
6-How can we help you?
7-Are you hoping to stay in Sumy or ready for a change?
8-How is EV Russian coming?
9-Can you send any photos of you with the fall colors and outdoors?
10-I need more pics of you specifically!
11-Special message for me.
12-Are you sure you don't want to put in a request for a christmas gift?
I miss you and I love you! I love every Sunday night getting to hear from you. Also I love that you have been sending them earlier, because I get them before I go to sleep usually so then I don't lose sleep that night:)
Love you,
Mom
Yes I am still happy and positive. NO, but none of them are coming to Sumy, those poor guys have been stuck in the MTC for EVER. WE watched confernce just on Sunday, we have been listening to it all week because we downloaded it. There was one american randomly in town, he watched it with us. My favorite talks were all in Priesthood Session, but I love it when President Monson speaks. They are all doing well, Tamara still wants to get baptized and she should be able to in about two weeks. I am close to a ready for a change, but I love Sumy. Honestly it is really hard for him, I fasted yesterday especially for him. He has very poor retention, and will often forget what he learns just an hour or two later. Very few people are able to understand him, and it is embarrassing for him when I have to translate from his Russian, to Regular Russian, I know he will get it eventually. Sometimes he resents me because I dont struggle with it like he does, but he gets over pretty quick, I try to do what I can to serve him. He is very similar to Josh, in that he is prideful, he tries to Irritate me just like Josh did, it doesnt work, he is not nearly as good at it as Josh was. He says he wants to find out what happens when he reaches my breaking point, I guess Josh could tell him so he doesnt have to find out. But I know that he loves me, and I love him. I really miss Josh, and I cant wait to hang out with him when I get home. I will try to send pictures of me more, it is hard because here, all the trees turn at different times, some are still green, and some have no leaves left. That pretty much describes Ukraine, it doesnt really know if it wants it to be summer or winter. I love you so much and you are the best Mom in the whole wide world. I love that we are best friends and we can trust eachother. I am so happy that I was raised by you.
I guess I could use a good pair of Sweats, I plan to run every other day even in the winter.
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