The Adventures of Elder Hokanson

Sep 12
Well now I am in IVANO FRANKIVSK!
It is a great lil college town of 300,000 people on the Western side of Ukraine there is not many places I can go that are more west then this. It a cool place with lots of wonderful buildings that have designs from Poland and other bordering countries - not the big ugly Russian USSR apartment buildings. This is the only city that has street signs that I have seen. Lots of kids - the branch is really small; bout 70 members and 45 come each week. We are trying to make that better. It's hard here tons of young people here to work with. There are many activities going on in the city - for example there was an art show music festival. There are tons going on each day.
The ride here was crazy! It was a wonderful 14 hour train ride full of people that I did not know trying to open my coupet door - not sure the word in English but the room I had on the train with my new companion. We slept part of it, but the beds are too short and it was very cold due to riding at night and the fact that fall comes very fast here. It has been raining the past week almost without stopping. I did wear my coat so I wouldn't get sick but too late - I have a cold. Food news - there are a ton of great places to eat here. I found out that it almost costs the same to eat out as it does to eat in. It's crazy.My new apartment is wonderful. Not the best but it has room. It's on the 2nd floor and nobody lives under us so I can bounce the soccer ball as much as I want without feeling bad. I mean, I need to practice...I am in Ukraine! From my apartment I can see the Carpathian Mountains. You should look at Google Earth of Ivano and look for the lake and get to the top left side of the lake and then move north and you will run in to the apartment.Wow...living in the Western part of the country is crazy. The apartment costs about 200$ USD and in Kiev I would have paid 1000 for it. The Anderson's, a senior couple that are in this city, pay 500$ for their apartment and would have paid 2000$ in Kiev and these apartments in the states would cost even more. They are way nice. Before I forget my new companion is Elder Jason Jackson from Louisiana. He is a good guy. He is only here till the end of the transfer so he has 5 weeks and then he is off to the USA and I get a new companion. YAY! But who will I get? And will we get along? I don't know. I hope we do! It will start snowing I am told in the next 2 months or so.
So that’s most of what I can think about that's new. So I will talk to you all later! I love you all! Peace! -Elder Hokanson PS. I still speak with a ton of CALI SLANG!!!