Twister and Elder Rice...

Week 66

Twister is just an amazing game for 4 missionaries to play... and Elder Rice is just a goof ball, so thats where the subject line comes from.

This week went really good, I had my first success with tracting ever! It went really well! We have given out 2 Books of Mormon and A plan of Salvation pamphlet in a realatively short time, hopeful they will be touched by the spirit.  

We also had a really good zone conference in Kharkov and Elder kecher from the area 70 was there, IT was a very good opprotunity for all of us to repent and become better.

Anna and Roman are starting to progress and we expect they will be baptized in the next month or so, we have high hopes for them.

SHe said that she is on level 2 of conversion according to her scale, they both like us and it seems like Anna is really starting to look for spiritual truth.

Love you All!

Hey buddy,

I was thinking the other day about how I have a 9 month wait to give you a big hug and finally see your face.  Then I realized that 20 years ago in November I started a 9 month wait to meet, see, and hold you in August.  

I am super anxious to hear about your week with your roomies!!!  I hope things are a lot more fun now!!  I also hope you are able to work even harder and be more successful!

A bunch of us Mission moms went to brunch yesterday.  It was so fun.  We had 8 of us.  It's fun to swap stories and learn more about the areas.

This week for us was good.  I was able to be successful with my first Thanksgiving dinner.  Allie and I had our families and Traci joined us.  Allie and I learned to make pies from scratch and also homemade rolls.  It was really a fun week.  I really enjoyed planning and preparing all the different dishes for our meal.  Everything was finished at the same time on Thursday and was delicious.  We had the TBoys as well.  

I have spent the last few months seriously researching service dogs.  I started feeling like we shouldn't wait for Cam to have seizures.  I hope he never has them for one thing.  But the more I researched I realized we were better off getting a puppy and finding a trainer to help us train the dog to be a service dog with Cam and Jord.  Then we researched the best breeds for our needs.  I knew it needed to be a big dog, because of how cam throws his weight around, the dog would need to be able to tolerate it.  We decided on a Golden Retriever.  After more research I decided I wanted an English Cream Golden Retriever.  Then began the search for the right puppy.  I thought about a puppy that was very well trained already, but realized we will probably ruin it within a week or so.  I feel like the family will need the training as much as the dog does.  So I found a lady that was selling the exact puppy I wanted and also provides 4 weeks of training with the price of the puppy.  She also has a service dog training program that we can do with her that will be about 7 months long and is very reasonably priced.  I wanted a girl puppy, and she had 1 left, but had a buyer for it.  She said I could come at 3:00 and have the little girl if the lady didn't show up.  I have prayed hard about this whole thing, so I prayed that if she was the right puppy for us she wouldn't get sold.  The lady texted at 2:00 saying that the buyer never showed up.  We went and met our little puppy and stayed for about an hour of training with her.  The seller said that she spent 2 hours on the phone with the other buyer and she was shocked that she never showed up.  So I am feeling confident that we are meant to have this puppy.  The kids are doing great with her and she is crate trained already.  She has had a few potty accidents, but all by the door and she has been mostly going outside for us.  I am really excited about it as are the kids.  It will be a lot of work, but I think we will be successful.  She is so cute, Cam named her Penny.

BYU Basketball lost to UVU!!!!!!!!!...yes I said LOST.  Curtis had taken Kalten, Jacob and Jordy to the game.  He said it was our worst loss in 40-50 years.  The football game was on about an hour later.  In 11 seasons of BYU football that we have been married, Curtis has never missed watching a Football game.  Well, this basketball game broke him completely.  He didn't watch the football game at all!  Hopefully he will recover;)

I get to speak to a ward in our stake this week, so I am excited about that.  Josh has a madrigals concert and Jordy has a choir concert as well.  Keely should be having this baby anytime now.  It could be a couple days or a couple weeks.  We are all really excited for them.  

They finally built a new church in Bluffdale so starting next week we will go back to have only 3 wards in the building and we go to the 1:00 session and stay with that all through 2017. Sacrament meeting will be first again too.

Questions this week-

1-Are you still happy and positive?

2-How has the dynamic changed in the apartment with the new missionaries?  Is it fun?

3-How are you and EV getting along?  How is his Russian improving?

4-Did you go to any mission conferences last week?

5-Have you received the card in the mail yet? or the package?

6-How are your investigators coming?

7-Did you ever get your test scores back? How did you do?

8-One of the moms yesterday said her sons emails go to her and that there was an email about mission Facebook groups and a competition or something.  Can we join those groups?  Are you doing that?

9-Also someone said that Sumy has the best Sharmas.  Is this true, you haven't said much about them?

10-How are you feeling about this transfer?  Are you doing well as the DL?

11-What do you miss most about home?  What do you miss most about living in america?  

12-What is one of the biggest lessons you have learned on your mission?

13-recordings

14-Pics- remember I want a tag picture...do you know what I mean?

15-message to me:)

16-Are you mad we got a dog or glad?

17- christmas Skype---

-Lets discuss Christmas.  When do you think you will be able to Skype for Christmas?  We are only doing Sacrament meeting, but they haven't decided what time we will be doing it.  So as soon as I find out I'll let you know.  You said you wanted to come up with a plan going into this Skype session.  What do you want to do for it?  I was thinking about writing a bunch of questions down to ask you, and you could do the same.  I'm not sure that we will be able to connect with Dakkon and G&G too.  How are you feeling about it, and what are you wanting to do?

I miss you like crazy, but I am so proud of you and glad you are serving.  I hope you are doing well.  Keep working hard and being the best person you can be.  Remember you aren't supposed to be perfect yet, that is why we are here.  Just keep doing your best and improve each day.  

Love you tons!!!!

Mom

Yes I am happy and positive.  IT is more fun, but unfortunately it can be distracting at some times.  YEah we are getting along better, its been a lot better since there are  4 people now.  His Russian is slowly improving, he still really struggles.  Yeah we got to go to the conference in Kharkov which was good, I saw EB and he looked like he was doing good.  The Card is sitting in the Mission Office right now, they should send it up to me today.  Our investigators are doing good, we think that Roman and Anna(The family history girl) will be baptized before next year.  I got them back today, and it was really good to see the scores, he told me exactly what I needed to improve on and stuff. I got 97% on the Grammar test, and I need to retake a few of the other ones. The Vocab tests were hard, because every missionary gains a very different vocabulary, but they released all of the words on the tests, so I have been able to study them, a lot of the words are very useful, but that I usually just talk around. 

Yeah I dont know if you can, it is Russian/Ukrainian Facebook. IT is called Contact, and I am pretty sure you wont be able to get onto it there, because There is a lot of "Free" Music on there, that I am pretty sure wont let you onto the site. All Music and Movies are basically Free here, because why pay for it on Itunes when you can download it for free? Yes Sumy does have the best Sharma, that is starting to be well known throughout the mission.  I like Sharma every once and a while, but most missionaries like it a few times a week.  I like it being a district leader is good, I think this will be one of my last transfers in Sumy.  

I miss:FREE Public Toilets, Clean Streets, clean air, Straight sidewalks, Mountains, Tortillas, Doritos, The Lack of Stray Dogs and cats, my own car, maple syrup, waffle Irons, lunchmeats, Good Peanut butter, Drinking Fountains, happy people, Modest young women, the Lack of porn on the street, Good Dentistry, My Gospel Library, Manners, large wards and stakes, things to do in your free time, and of Coarse All of YOu! Specifically about our home, I miss pretty much everything.

Gratitude, and Charity are two big things.  also we got this one last night from a potential investigator "If you want something good to get done, do it yourself." Yup pretty much, you cant really rely on anyone else to do something for you, except for God, and even then He requires things from you. I am glad you got a dog, I knew it would happen at some point.  Yeah lets just both make a list of questions for Skype, we will probably be on at about 7-8 PM Ukraine time.

I love you so much thanks for figuring everything out with the Card.  I am so blessed to have you as a mom.  I am so excited that we only have 9 Months to go but at the same time I am terrified, because that is not very long at all (6 transfers).  I love being a missionary and your son.

2+2=4

Week 65

We had one companionship, (Elder Jorgensen and Elder VanBuskirk) and the Lord added another companionship(Elder Jeffery and Elder Rice), what does that make? A district of course!

This week went well, it started off with a miracle! We didnt have very much time and we had planned to go to an area that is pretty far away from our house, but we decided to follow the spirit, and we got on that Marshutka anyway.  Just a short 5 minutes after leaving the Marshutka, we found a youngman whose family was interested in the Book of Mormon, and our Church. Doesnt matter how much sense it doesnt make to do something, because it makes less sense not to do it if that is what God wants you to do. (If what your doing makes 0 sense... I am not sure how that works, maybe it makes -1 sense).

We are now in 4 wheel drive, we picked up the other 2 wheels on Thursday night, and they brought a box of very much needed copies of the Book of Mormon, which we were nearly out of(good problem right?).

We had a thanksgiving feast for our English class on Saturday night, I will send pictures, it was a really good opprotunity and they all enjoyed it. We tried to have everyone say something they were thankful for. Elder Vanbuskirk started and said something pretty good.  Then the Participants went and... the first set a tone of thanking us for what we do, so we got like 20 thankyous from everyone, I dont think they understood the purpose was to be thankful for Family, or Life, or time, or God. But o well, eventually they will be grateful that they got Baptized ;)

I miss and love you all, and it is such a privelege to serve the Lord and his children!

Hey Jax,

I am sooooo excited that they are sending you new missionaries up there!  Elder Jeffery will be a great one to bridge the gap for when you get transferred out of Sumy.  I feel like you would need someone awesome to take over so you don't lose your connections that you've made with the community and the branch.  I feel great about it!  I am glad you are the DL too.  You are great at leadership and I'm glad you will be doing that again.

Last thanksgiving without you!!!  We are counting down;)  Time seems to be flying by!  I love getting your emails each week and it really makes the weeks go fast.  

Me and Sister Montgomery went to Elder Maylett's farewell today.  We talked to him afterward for a few minutes.  Any connection to your mission feels like a connection to you some how!  A bunch of the mom's are getting together for lunch this Saturday.  It should be a lot of fun!

Our week...

Cam had his swollen salivary gland again this week.  The Dr. said it is from the shape of the salivary ducts and that they have become pinched, or misshaped somehow and that it will continue to happen regularly.  They just hope that it eventually gets better, and treat with antibiotics when it becomes infected.

Cam also had his swallow study this week which was normal...but he choked again tonight on the same pill so I don't know what to do with him.  It is super sad when it happens, it's really painful.

We also had the pinewood derby.  Clint, Curtis, me and a guy in our ward helped him do the car.  It was probably a family best and he took second in several of his races.  He was happy and had fun, and didn't cry and throw a fit when he didn't win like several other kids...so I think we are the real winners;).

I have been learning how to bake homemade rolls and pie crust in preparation for Thanksgiving.  I wish I had learned sooner because it really has been fun and easy.  We are having thanksgiving with Allie and their family and traci.  We will have the Tboys the entire weekend too.  We are planning to have a lord of the rings marathon with baking and cooking all day.  I'm actually excited about it, and it make me want to put more effort into the holidays in the years to come.  

I volunteered in Kaestli's class this week and taught a fairytale unit on Cinderella.  It was fun and really cute.  I had all the kids saying how nice I was and coming and giving me treats.  I could tell sis was proud to have me as a mom and that just makes my week!  

The boys went to a byu game yesterday with Curtis and Jordy took a friend, garrick gibbons...who is also Jacob's friend so they were happy.  Josh took a girl!  So that was interesting group.  I kept the little kids home and had Colette teach me how to make rolls and pie crust.  I saw Coleman and he is doing good.  No plans for a mission and no girlfriend.  Ethan Glaittli had his homecoming today and did awesome.

I miss you like crazy!  I am requesting some "tag" photos.  This is a picture of your tag with a background that is unique to your area.  I'm sure other missionaries have done them...it's a thing.  So ask around if you don't know what I mean.

I hope your bank card comes this week!  I am anxiously awaiting Sister Sullivan emailing me that it has arrived.

I want to hear everything about having Elder Jeffery and Rice up there in Sumy!  

So Questions-

1-How is it having them up there with you?

2-Did you find them a separate apartment, or are they going to live with you guys?

3-How is the branch feeling about it?

4-Will they be helping you with the English classes? How often will you see them during the week?

5-Do you still see Ksenia very often?  I miss her sending pics of you guys.

6-How are you and EV getting along?  Has having the other missionaries there helped?  

7-What responsibilities do you have as a District leader?

8-Are you still happy and positive?

9-Anything dragging you down, or that you are struggling with?

10-How is your Russian?  How are you doing on your test things you told me about?

11-Special message.

12-Pics

13-recordings

14 anything I can do for you or that you need?

15 How is the new greenie, Elder Rice adjusting?  Do you guys do splits very often?  Will you?

I saw the gibbons girls yesterday and they are both BYU mentors and know all about getting missionaries registered for school.  They also said you would have to wait to apply for the MTC teacher position, but that they are always looking for Russian teachers so that is great news.  They said they will get me a bunch of information that I can send on to you and you can look over, but they will help me get you all set up and ready so not to worry.

In Ethan Glaittli's talk today he mentioned something I wanted to pass on to you.  He talked about his trainer and how positive he was about EVERY THING!  He said the he wasn't so positive about anything and his comps positivity bothered him a little bit.  When he switched comps and moved around the mission the longer he had been out the more he came to understand that Elder and how he saw how much better of a missionary he was than some of the others.  He recognized the difference was his positivity.  He started striving to be like that companion and a year later saw him and thanked him for his example.  The story reminded me a little of you and some of the things you have said.  Just keep being who you are and stay your happy positive self.  Even if they don't understand or appreciate it now, you could leave a lasting impact that will change their whole mission, and maybe even the course of their lives.  You are awesome!  

I love you so much.  I hope you have a great week and get to have some sort of thanksgiving dinner.  At least eat potatoes or turkey and remember what you are thankful for!  

Love you,

Mom

It is good having them here Elder Vanbuskirk has changed a lot because of it. It is nice, he is a lot more helpful.  They live with us.  The branch is excited, it hasnt been 4 missionaries up here since May!  We see them very often, yeah they will definitely help with the english classes.  We see her sometimes, we want to watch meet the Mormons with here and her husband sometime.  Make sure everyone is home and working hard. To relay information and be a good example. I have to make call ins to the zone leaders.  I think this will be either my last or second to last transfer here.  I am happy and positive. Nope everything is great!  My Russian is good. I dont know about the tests becasue they havent given me my score yet.  Elder Rice is doing well, he is a goofy guy, we will do splits every week and a half or so.  Are either of the gibbons girls married yet? I'd be surprised if not, but I feel like youd make sure to tell me that.  I will try to do the name tag thing.  I love you so much you are the greatest and I am so happy for you. I am glad that sis is proud of you, because I am too! I love getting letters, I am working on a big Christmas letter. If its snow there it sounds like Shapka season! Love you!

Tamara's baptism!

Week 64

So Tamara got baptized on saturday! We are so happy for her, I will send pictures.  We had to do it at a swimming pool, the pool was so deep that Brother Serge was up to his neck, and We had to find a stool for Tamara to stand on. The water was cold and she was crying because of that, but after she got to sit in the Sauna to warm up and she was happy.

We are still doing really well on finding here, it is amazing as our investigators bring us investigators. 

The rest of the week was good, I have transfer information and not alot is changing. I am now the District Leader in Sumy, and Elder Jeffery and Elder Rice(Who is still not even in Ukraine)  are coming to join us up here. We really need the extra hands, everything should go well!

Anna is still doing okay, she is not progressing any more, but she has good potential to progress again, we hope she and Roman will get married in the Temple one day, but they have to get baptized first!

We had a less active show up to church randomly yesterday, eh asked for help moving out of his appartment. So we helped him and had a small spiritual thought, he said hell come back to church next week so that should be good. The snow is starting to come down here, and I love it!

Elder Vanbuskirk is still trying to adjust to it, it is funny.  He like refused to believe that God would create so "Terrible" a thing as winter.  But oh well!

I love it!

Hey bud,

Well, you had me pretty stressed out at the beginning of the week;)  I was seriously so worried.  I feel good about it now though.  Sister Sullivan called me on tuesday and that helped me realize that you wouldn't be without money for transfers...just for extra stuff.  

We had a pretty good week.  We had more Dr. and Dentist appts. that went pretty good.  Cam is sick again with a swollen Salivary gland again so I will have to take him back to the Doctor tomorrow.  His swallow study is on Wednesday so that should be interesting.  

We had parent teacher conferences for the Elementary kids.  They are all doing good.  Cam is doing as expected mostly.  Kaestli is smart and doing really well.  Her reading level is coming close to Cam's.  Jacob is doing great and pulling to the head of the class.  He is really doing well with math.  He loves his teacher.

Jordy had a pretty good week.  There have been a couple issues at the school with him, but he is mostly doing well, and it is far better than it was at South Hills.  He still has the big sore in his mouth and then he did a face plant while ice skating for YW/YM's the other day and his braces went through his top lip.  It's all cup up and was really fat for a few days.  The cuts are still healing but it looks better from the outside view at least.  There was literally part of his lip still attached to his braces that I had to pull out.  

The presidential election was this week.  And the shock to the nation  and probably the world was that Trump won!  Josh was completely giddy the entire night of the election.  He threw a bit of a fit about having to go ice skating during it, but I forced him to go.  The republican party took the house and senate and with a republican president Josh is hoping to push some conservative agenda's through.  I feel quite fine about the result and have hope that Trump will do a good job.  The stock market has stayed steady so that is a great sign.

The boys went to crystal hot springs for scouts this week and apparently Josh and Jordy both convinced 2 different girls to kiss them on the cheek.  So.....that happened.  Why can't they be more like you.  Just obedient!  

The BYU game was yesterday and we had fun.  

Curtis is in St. Louis today and tomorrow working on our housing investments there.  I am hoping we can sell them soon.  They are more stress than they are worth.

Everything else is pretty much the same.  I am super curious about transfers!  Here are my 3 options to make your life better.

1-You get transferred out of there.

2-You get a new comp but stay.

3-You don't get a new comp but they add 2 more missionaries to live with you guys so you can at least do splits more often and have more help around the apartment and have other people to talk to and hang out with.

Can't wait to hear all about it!!!!

Questions-

1-Bank card issues...anything else I should know about? Everything ok? Let me know when you get it.

2-Christmas package is sent.  Promise not to read the customs label.  Inside you will find wrapped gifts that you have to save.  But there is one gift you can have early that is in the small stocking, be careful with that and then there is a box that goes with it that is a christmas box but not wrapped.  You can open that too.  OK???  Also, there isn't any letters in the package, but I will send some from all the kids this month separately.

3-Full details of the transfers, where you are, who is your DL and who is your ZL.  What zone are you apart of?

4-Tell me about your new comp, or new room mates etc.

5-Did Tamara get baptized???  Do you have any pics of it???

6-Pics

7-recordings

8-Has EV gotten any better?  Is his back a real problem?  

9-I got your letter about Sarah...Sorry to hear that she doesn't feel the same way.  I am glad you have a good attitude about it.  You will be going to BYU with a huge selection of amazing girls.  You just need to pray you will be lead to a good, kind loving girl that you will have a happy life with. Don't worry about any girls right now.  What did EV email to whitney...isn't she on a mission too?  

10-Are you happy and positive?  Is it hard to stay happy and positive?

11-What do you love most about Sumy?

12-Did that Family Search girl come to church again, any progress with her?

13-Tell me about this new Russian lesson/tests things.  One of the moms was talking about how her son is starting these tests and his call is to go around and help with the language or something like that.  What is it?  Do you think it will help?

14-How does President Sullivan think you are progressing?  What does he have you working on?

15-message for me:)

Well, I miss you like crazy.  The weather has been amazing here, so it is nice to have time passing and feel like christmas is close, even though it's still nice outside.  I think it gets cold again this week though.  

What if you get a new apartment and there aren't hand warmers?  Let me know and I'll send you another package with them:)

Love you so much!!!!  I hope you are super excited about the changes being made, and if nothing changed I know you will get through it.

Love you,

Mom

NO, everything is okay, sorry that stressed you out, everything else is going fine. Thanks so much for the Package, I cannot wait to get it.  So transfers are such, I am staying in Sumy with Elder Vanbuskirk, I am the District Leader, and Elder Jeffery, and Elder Rice(Brand New missionary) are coming to stay with us in sumy, we are trying to find them a new appartment. Elder Vanbuskirk has been much better lately, it is enjoyable to be his companion so everything is okay.  Yes Tamara got Baptized and I have tons of pics to send.  Yeah I am not too heart broken, I have known for a pretty long time that she wouldnt be my wife.  Yes I am happy and positive, no it is not hard.  I love the people, and how clean our city is, they actually shovel the snow away here! IT is amazing.  We got 3 inches last night, and there should be more on the way, somone said it should drop to -20 soon.  I am not worried about girls at all, yes Whitney is on a mission. He just Emailed her the usual middle school "I see you and Elder Jorgensen Right eachother every week, and he talks about you sometimes, so how do you feel about him"

I dont really care about it, I sent an Email to her after explaining, she thought it was funny.

We met with her a couple times, but she did not come to church, she might invite some of her friends though.

Yeah the tests are simple, they are to help the missionary know what he needs to work on.  We take a test after everyother district meeting.

He says I am progressing well, I have never been chastised by him, He trusts me a lot.

I love you so much, thanks for all he help you are giving me.  You are the best Mom ever!

Knock and it shall be opened unto you...

Week 63

From the subject you probably think that we found someone while tracting... nope.

But we did find many people by working with our area books(We have 2 because Sumy used to have 2 companionships before our mission). So we can safely change that phrase to Dial, and ye shall be answered.

Besides that we had a good week of Zone training in Kharkov which went really well. We made a goal as a zone to get up at 6:30 and work out for 30 minutes. Not to difficult of a goal for some people to keep, extremely difficult for others.  

Anna, the one interested in Family History from last week came to church yesterday, and she loved it!  She said "I still have lots of doubts and concerns, but I am 100% sure of one thing, you are good, very good, I will never get tired of people like you" She told me to tell my mom she should be proud of me, and considering that I am doing exactly what 70,000 other young men and women are doing around the world, there should be many proud mothers this day.

Everything is going well for us here. We had Exchanges this week with Elder Snow(Brand new to the mission) and Elder Jeffery, I went with Elder Snow and it went well, he said he learned something from me and that was good. 

Love you all!

Hey buddy!

I hope and pray that Tamara was able to get baptized yesterday!!!  I am so glad she was able to stop drinking the black tea.  Can you imagine if our schools served that?!?  Crazy!  I really hope you have pictures of it too!!!

You know I always put up Christmas early, but this year might be a record.  We cleaned out and organized the toy room yesterday and did the Storage room last week (aren't you glad you missed that;).  So then we started thinking about the rest of the month and I realized that there is a BYU home game every saturday for the next 3 weeks.  We decided to just get the Christmas stuff up and done so we don't have to worry about it.  

Josh has been quite the social butterfly this week.  He went out on a date on Halloween with a girl to a party.  He dressed up as Danny and she was Sandy from Grease.  He was so excited about it.  The girl actually asked him to go to the party with her.  He came home from school and was on cloud nine.  He started unloading the dishwasher as he was telling me all about it, and then when he finished, he said, "wait, did you ask me to unload?".  Nope...but I wasn't going to stop you!!  They had fun, and then a couple days later he brought the same girl to the house after school for a little bit.  Then he asked a different girl to go on a double date with him and his friend, but then the friend backed out and the girl still wanted to go so he took her to a movie and ice cream last night.  On Friday I went to dinner with Merideth Sorenson, (madeline's mom).  We saw them in a restaurant a few weeks ago and Josh was able to talk with her.  So Merideth mentioned that Madeline would love to go on a date with Josh.  But she warned me that Madeline was a Hillary supporter.  You should have seen Josh's face when I told him that!!!  So he ended up texting her and they had a really long discussion/debate about politics that is honestly one of the funniest things I have ever read.  He has met his match for sure with her!!!!  They ended up planning a date for next week.  

We had tons of Dr. and Dentist appt. this week and now Jordy has a massive sore in his mouth.  He chewed on it while it was numb (not the first time this has happened) and it is just horrible.  Adding to the problem now is his braces and his allergy to the metal from the braces.  So it is just awful.  

Curtis had a big presentation at work this week that went really good.  

Jordy changed schools on Monday.  The bus picks him up at 7:10 and drops him off at 3:10.  The change is going to be really good I think.  His teachers are awesome, and he loves them.  She texts me almost every night.  They seem to really like him and are trying to figure out how to best help him.  He tells all his friends that he changed schools because his mom wants him to get a better education.  Cute...but true:).

We are feeding the sister missionaries today:)  I'm super excited for that.  

So I absolutely LOVED your letter last week!!!!  I pray constantly that I will be able to help you in your missionary work.  But, honestly I am half way around the world so what can I do???  Well, your letter last week was an answer to prayer.  I have had such a pull to work on the family search site.  I have spent hours adding pictures, memories, and documents to our family tree.  To read that you were able to show that website to your investigators and that they were super impressed with all the pics and information really showed me that Heavenly Father had answered my prayers.  I was able in a very small way to contribute to your missionary efforts.  

I am praying like crazy that if it is God's will, he will let you get a new companion this next transfer!  I know it is good for you to have hard comps, because it will help you in your life and in your mission and in your marriage.  But I hate that you can't really get a break from him.  I feel like if you were with a couple other missionaries at least you would get to do splits occasionally.  I hope things are getting better.  I am proud of you for trying to serve him through the problems.  You said it perfectly though when you said, "I'm happy and he is not, it's his problem".  I agree completely.  Just stay being your self and doing your best.  

So Questions....

1- EV--Do you know if other comps have had problems with him as well?  Does President Sullivan know what a problem he is for his companions?  Have you talked with PS about the problems you are having with him? Are things getting any better with him, or still the same?

1.2-Has EV russian improved at all?  Does he try?  How is his back?

2-I almost have your package finished for Christmas.  I don't really have anything for your comp...whoever that may be though.  Should I get something for them? and what if so? I also want to confirm you DO NOT want hand warmers?  

3-Predictions for next week?  Hopes for next week transfers?  Is it possible that you and EV get transferred out of Sumi or would he leave at least one of you up there?

4-Are you still happy and positive?

5-When having issues with comps are you still able to work effectively?

6-Are you trying to teach Andre the gym guy?

7-How are the english classes going?

8-Family Search, were you able to get those people set up on it?  I think you should get Lena's mom on there so she can put all her records on there so they don't get lost.

9-Special message for me

10-recordings

11-Pictures!!!!!

12-Are you still growing?  How tall are you now, what do you weigh?

I love you so much.  I am super proud of you.  I know it can be hard to deal with difficult personalities.  I'm glad you can handle it better than most people.  You are just like Daddy Jake was.  Jacob and you have his same personality.  Just happy all the time and laid back.  IT is a blessing and is a very rare type of personality!  I love seeing how much you look and sound like Daddy Jake now.  I feel like when you get off that plane you will be daddy Jake's adult twin.  It is going to be so crazy!!!  I seriously can't wait for you to get home!

Ethan Glaittli got home this week...so next is Johnny and Jake Harper and then Conner in January!  It's the same group you went out with kind of.  You all left...and now you will all start coming home.  I think Sarah is extending a month so you guys will probable get home the same time.

Love you tons!  Stay strong and faithful.  Work hard, pray even harder.  Stay positive!  I love you and support you fully.  I am proud to be your mom.  I hope you have a great week and get a new companion next week;)

Love you 

Mom

Yes nearly all of them have. Yes I emailed president about it, and It is all OK. HE has gotten better since about Tuesday. Do you remember those off and ons that Josh had, It is like that. Sometimes he is nice and helpful, sometimes he is just the opposite. He is getting a little better every week.  His back is ok.  No hand warmers, we dont need them, every apartment has tons of left over handwarmers from previous missionaries.  Just get something small for my companion whoever it may be. My prediction is that We will get another companionship up here, and I will be the district leader for the Sumy District.  I think we will probably both stay, but it wouldnt surprise me if I got transferred to another area.  Yes I am happy and positive.  Usually yes we can still work well.  We are dropping him, becasue he is not progressing.  English classes are continuing to go well.  Not yet, but we are planning to.  Lenas mom has plans on indexing over 120000 names... she is way on top of family history.  I am 6 feet tall and 1/16 of an inch. I weigh about 150 pounds.  I cant believe Ethan is already home! That is crazy tell him hi for me! Does he seem different now?I cant believe how fast their missions flew by, but I only have 9 months and 19 days left. Each month seems to fly by faster and faster.  Before we know it I will be sending home all of my Winter stuff! This winter will basically be half of the rest of my mission, I will probably send all of my stuff home in March or April.  Only 1 month until we get to skype, I love you so much! We need to come up with a plan for this skype call, so that we can use it effectively.   What do you want to talk about? 

Youre the best.