Just a taste of what the Prophet dealt with...

Week 86

Well, this week was a mixed bag mostly good, and lots of learning, and one somewhat sour experience.

WE started off strong with an exchange with Elder Owen, which was good for both of us, it is really cool to be able to work with other Elders and try to help them progress in their mission, and at the same time learn from them.

Elder Bates and elder Jarman were going to teach Nastya and Viktor and Annya the plan of salvation, but apparently they did not quite have time, so we will have to teach them that another time.

We had one new investigator this week, his name is Zhenya I think I have written about him before, but he finally accepted a return appointment to talk about gospel stuff.  Basically he is way faithful in Jesus Christ and wants everyone to know about our savior, I think I understand his feelings there.  he is a baptist and as we were walking and talking we wound up close to his church he asked if wed like to see it and we said sure, and asked if it would be possible to meet his pastor.  Unfortunately his pastor was gone and so we couldnt meet him but he introduced us to one of the other preachers who was not happy what-so-ever to see us and he basically yelled at us and at Zhenya for talking to us for like 5-10 minutes. We tried to be friendly, but he made it clear that "we are not Brothers" and that we are some sort of evil 19-18 year old business men who want nothing more than to gain recoginition in our church, could care less what happens to Zhenya tomorrow as long as he comes to our church and is a part of our program, dont actually believe in Christ, "Jehovas witnesses are boys, children compared to these guys, these are MEN, they are PROFESSIONALS they know how to get you"(I felt some what flattered and insulted at the same time with that one) he said looking at us like we are Rattle Snakes or some other unpleasently venemous serpent. After enduring this I looked at him in the Eyes and asked "You probably read this all on the Internet right" he responded"yeah, but not just that there is books too!", I replied "If you want to know who we actually are and what we actually believe, you need to go to the source, you are mistaken."  After that he began again and I said "This conversation is over" and me and Elder Jarman walked away with zhenya behind us. Zhenya was so embarassed about how his "friend" acted.  HE asked if we judge his church after that we responded "no, that is just one guy, you cant judge a church because of one person"(what if people judged all of Christianity because of Judas Iscariot?) 

We had a good talk after that, which resulted in us establishing that we ARE brothers in Christ, and that yes, we hope one day he will join our church, but not because we told him to, but because he wants to, and God told him to.  We ended as good friends and I hope that his eyes will be opened a bit after that. 

Elder Jarman and I reflected after that on how our experience compares to those of the Prophet Joseph I suggest you read Joseph Smith History 23-24 and think about how similar thousands of missionaries all over the world are to Joseph.  We arent Professionals, heck, I cant even grow a beard yet! we are nothing more than Young men, who know what we have seen, heard, and learned and nothing can convince us otherwise.  We have been called to rise and stand as representatives of Christ our Lord and savior in all things and all places. I dare say there is no one in Kremenchuk that cares more about the people that live here than we do, for we are to strive to love them as the savior loves them.

Well that was the biggest stuff this week funniest thing was how much milk I bought this morning, my favorite brand was on sale:)

Love you!

Hey Elder,

How are things going?  I can't believe how fast time is flying by!  It's just crazy, but I love it.  

We have had a good week, nothing too exciting happened.  

Jordy had 1 last appt. before he gets his braces off next week.  He is so excited and so am I!  I can't wait to not see food in his teeth constantly!  He is also talking about how he will be able to laugh at you when you have to get braces on again.  He plans to brag about only having to have them once.  Jacob will be in the same boat as you, so he has 2 people to taunt about it:).

Josh got a job at Subway this week, so that should be great!  We also had to do dumb arena scheduling for him on Friday.  He is taking Calc. BC, woodworking, computer programing, AP Language arts, his 2 choir classes, seminary, US govt., and weights.  Should be a good schedule.  He went to a dance on Saturday night with Brinlee (pixie), MORP.  They did a Harry Potter theme.  He DID get his first kiss from Brinlee...so there is that;).

We spent Saturday doing some yard work and getting that kind of stuff done.

Jacob had a basketball game that was a heartbreaker.  They lost by 1 point:(, but he practices outside so much.  It is really showing in his shooting.  He can nail his 3 point shot now.  He has always been a good ball handler and great defensively but his shooting game is getting really great too.

Jordy went on a long bike ride with his friends.  He is doing well in school too.  He has officially dropped all his local girls for his Aussie girlfriend that he met in Fiji.  I'm great with that seeing that he will never see her again!

Brayden had his birthday party at Classic Skating. The kids had a blast.  They did laser tag and played on all the blow up slides.  We took scooters for them to ride around as well.  Cam had a pretty good crash that has left some big scabs on his face, above and below his eye.  

I had book club Sunday night at my house.  I picked the book Mindset.  You'll have to read it when you get home.  It's about having a fixed or growth mindset.  It is super helpful and has actually changed the way Dad and I are parenting and talking to the kids.  

We are getting to the point where you need to make some decisions on classes and AFROTC.  I think we have to register for your classes in June.  So start checking out BYU website to see what you want to do.  The Regency Scholarship this year is 1250.00 per semester.  The new info came.  You just have to prove you are taking a full schedule and then they send the money.  I'll stay on top of all that stuff.  But I do want you to figure out what classes you want to take that first semester.

Questions-

1-When are transfers?  Next week?

2-Are you hoping to stay put with your comp, or looking for a change?

3-How is your family doing?  I am so excited you are working with a family!  I hope that all of it works out!!!

4-How is the weather, is Ukraine pretty in the spring?

5-Are you by any farms, fields, green spaces or mostly just city?

6-Did you get your package yet?

7-How is your skin looking?  The pictures seem like it is looking clear?  Has anyone commented on it, like Sister Sullivan;)?

8-I noticed you spent money last week, what did you get?

9-How can I help you best from here?

10-Are you still happy and positive?

11-I loved all the pics last week!!!  Thanks for those, and I love the recordings!  Any more pics this week?

12-Recordings?

13-What is your weight and height now?

14-Are you still working out?  Are you getting ripped?

15-Tell me what your thinking to my above comments about college.

I love you and miss you so much!  Thanks for serving a mission.  I am so glad you did.  I totally think it will alter the course of your life.  You are one of my best friends and I hope we are always this close.  Thanks for setting such a great example of having a good relationship with me.  I can see the other boys trying to create that same bond and I am so glad.  My hope it that we will always stay close as a family no matter how far the distance is between us.  You're the best.  Thanks!  

I love you!!!

Mom

Yeah we get calls this Saturday.

2 Yeah we get along really well, and he had even more of a passion for cleanliness than I do, its amazing.

3They are doing good, they are going to get married in May.

4Well, it snowed randomly this week, but yeah it is really beautiful here in the spring, if the snow didnt kill everything then we will have a ton of fresh strawberries soon.

5 mostly just city, but we live by a big field.  

6 nope not yet.

7 well when I had the proactiv it was improving now I break out every once and a while but it is definitely better over all, everyone here says I just need to get married and it will go away.

8 I did a favor for a bunch of Elders in Dnepr a member here works for a printing company and she made a template for mini books of mormon in Russian, the Elders in Dnepr wanted a lot, so I payed the first half of the sum so they could start printing them, and they will pay me back when I am in Dnepr tomorrow.

9 Just keep praying for our investigators and us:)

10yes

I am 6 foot flat, and I dont know how much I weigh now because our scale broke, last I checked 165.  My suit jackets are getting real tight around the chest from working out.  You should see Elder Fuller, he accidentaly ripped one of his shirts a few weeks ago.

I made lots of pics and Recordings and yes we are getting ripped, I will be able to beat mike up a bit when i get home;) tell him Im comin for him.

A little news.  So I gave Sierra the wrong email adress apparently.  I havent recieved an email from her my entire mission until last week.  She is companions with the Britney that Kade was in LOVE with, so it is really funny.  They show people our prom pics all the time to show that they knew eachother before the mission.  I dont know if she still likes me, but I know that she went to a lot of effort to get my email. I tried to not think about it too much during the week.  But it is way cool, I am glad that she didnt secretly hate me this whole time.

You forgot I love you. 

i love you!

Dear Fam-

Week 85

This week went really well and I am so happy! The work is really starting to move a long and we are doing a lot of work.  

Family things First: Nasty, Viktor and Anna are doing well, they accepted the book of Mormon last night and promised to read it. The lesson was super good, and we read from the bible mostly.  Anna is an adorable little 11 year old who is a lot smarter than she looks, and she LOVES it when we come over(I may or may not have given her american chocolate milk to acheive that effect).  Nastya is pregnant and will give birth some time soon.  Viktor is just a good family man, currently helping his son build at tree house at their country home.  They want to come to church so we will see what happens.

Second things second:  We went to an adventist/baptist combined sunday easter meeting and it was good, it wasnt reverent, but it was good.  It kind of felt like listening to K-love on the radio if you all know what that is. Basically a christian rock concert, but In Russian.  Our new friend Zhenya was playing in the band, he is a great guy, with a great heart and is an amazing example for all of the young men here, his mom was the singer in the band, and she did a good job. We had to leave early to go to our church services, so we didnt get to talk to her.  

​Third is what missionaries in our mission do a lot of: CONTACTING (Cheers)

We found a really great way to go contacting this last couple of weeks, it was definitely strait from the Lord.  Here is how it works "Hello, could you help us? we are learning Russian and we need people to practice speaking with." Ukrainian man/woman "Yes, but what do you want to talk about?" (said while glancing uncertainly towards the Nametag as the thought "JDUBS!" flashes through their mind) Us: "I dunno anything really, what do you want to be when you grow up?" really your reply to their question can change to almost anything, but all you have to do is start the converstation, and talk and then they do the investigating all by themselves. We had 90 percent success rate with that simple tactic.  I am SURE that people have though of it before, but not very many seem to have tried it.  The last contact we had doing that was an amazing young woman who wants to learn more about the church.

Well, thats about it. I made american Lemonade today. Boy have I missed that, first glass in 20 months.

Love you!

Hey buddy,

Wow what a week we had!  We seriously had so much fun.  It was great to be with Grandma and Grandpa!  We loved every minute of it.  All the kids were really good.  Our favorite part was the village.  There is a small village in the Bush in Fiji that is all members.  They even have a really nice church building next to the village because they are so strong.  I sent you a group picture with all of them together.  That is all the primary children in the ward.  The Bishop lives next to the church and the missionaries have their flat right there too.  Picture run down shacks with no doors and no windows.  The living conditions are so humbling.  We took the children some toys, books and clothes.  The bishop had them sing primary songs to us.  It was awesome!  Then the kids just played together.  The boys all started playing rugby with all the boys in the village.  Kaestli started reading books to the little girls (yes she can read books!).  They climbed trees, and ran around having a great time.  The houses wouldn't be fit for our animals to live in.  It was amazing to see the poverty, and yet complete joy of these members.  The children sang so loud and with such a strong testimony.  We were all over come by the experience.  The church is such a blessing to the people of Fiji.  

We went on a river trip where they put us on a bamboo raft for a little ways...that was the worst part of the trip.  It was covered in spiders and when everyone got on the raft the bamboo was submerged in the water which caused the spiders to swim for higher ground and that happened to be on Cam.  He had 3 different large spiders crawling all over him.  It was traumatic for us all;)

We went to several different beaches, waterfalls, zip lines, snorkeling, sailing, and dolphin tours.  It was so much fun.  During one of the snorkeling trips the guide had the 3 boys with him.  They snorkeled around an entire reef.  The guy dove down and picked up a sea cucumber and squeezed it.  It sprayed something similar to silly string all over the boys.  Apparently it is a defense mechanism and kills what ever it attacks...except people.  It sprays it out of it bottom...ewe...and then it stuck to them.  Of course Jordy managed to be covered in it including his hair.  It was funny...but super gross too!

I learned that Josh will make a great missionary.  He seriously talked to every random stranger he met.  On the plane to LA he sat and talked to the girl about the gospel, missionary work, our Prophet etc.  I started snapping pics of him when he was talking to the random people.  When we went to the villages he would jump right in talking to the kids and adults.  It was awesome.  He was surprised to see the living conditions of the missionaries.  After seeing everything he said, "I hate to admit it, but I might NEED to be called to the states, cause I need more pampering than this" haha.  He will have zero disappointment with a stateside call if that is what comes;)

We got home last night at midnight and had everyone to bed by 2 am.  We all slept until 11:30 and woke up to the Easter bunny stuff.  We went to church and then had dinner.  I gave the kids sleeping pills so they could get back on a regular schedule tonight.  

Josh has a new "thing" going with a girl named Pixie.  He hasn't kissed her yet...but they are saying they are a thing.  I don't know what to do, but I do know he needs to have friends and feel like girls will like him so right now I am cautiously allowing it.

We missed you on the trip, but I know you are right where you belong!  I am so proud of you for that.  And now I will need to take you on a trip to make it up to you:)

Discussions-

1-Did you hear about Elder Walker?  That sucks...his mom isn't sure if she should be so happy to see him, or sad that he is having to come home too soon.

2-Any other info on Elder Olsen?  His mom was asking Sister Walker a ton of questions about planning a wedding last week, and I know that Elder Olsen is her oldest...hmmm.

3-Your Comp is awesome, he sent me an email last week telling me thank you for raising a great son, and that you are the best companion ever!  It totally made me cry and it made Grandma cry too.  So sweet.  Are you still getting along great?

4-Any progress with the family you found?  That is so exciting to have a new family to work with!!

5-what do you thing of the Josh situation?

6-I put in 50 more $ in your account...so you have like 60-70-ish  will you need more than that?

7-Did you get my package yet?

8-Can you get me some cool eggs again since it was easter?

9-What was the best part of your week?

10-Did you get better?  How are you feeling?

11-Did you tell Sister Sullivan you were sick?

12-pics,

13-Recordings...I forwarded the last recording for all the men in your life to all the men:)

14-message for me...you could record a message for me too;)

I miss you and love you!  We are counting down the days!  I can't believe you are reading War and Peace in Russian!  That is crazy!!  I am so proud of you!!!  I am coming around to the AFROTC idea.  I can see that it could be very good for you.  You are the best!  Keep being a great missionary!

I love you!!!

Mom

No, what happened to Elder Walker, if you read this respond, whats up?  

2No... he better not have done what I think he did, he may have made the promise. I made myself a promise that I would never make THAT promise to a girl in ukraine, because I am 99 percent sure I would not keep it.

3Awww that is so sweet,  Yeah we still get a long really well.

4 yeah they accepted the book of Mormon last night, and want to read it, their daughter is an investigator to now.

5 Well pixie is an interesting name.  I think you should just keep an eye on it and let him have a "girlfriend" make sure to tell him that she should know that the mission is first, so she isnt expecting anything.

6Sweet, that will be great, yeah there is a really good store for Ukrainian souveniers here, I can get quite a bit of stuff.

7No not yet

9 The lesson last night with Nasty and Viktor was really good.

10YEs I feel much better, definitely a mission miracle.

11 I always do

I love you so much and I cant wait to be with you all again, it made me really happy to see the kids in Fiji, tell josh to imagine Ukraine as a gray, middle ground between USA and FIJI.  Your  the best mom and I am so happy to be in your family forever!

Elder Walker broke his ankle playing ultimate frisbee and has to be sent home on Wednesday. He has a 6 month recovery so he won't be going back. Sad. 

Love you