Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Hello for this week everyone!

I find myself short on time...But I am really happy that when I come home I will be an uncle with a 2 month old niece or nephew! That's so cool! Congrats Hoss & Marybel!

But this week, it's been great. We have an investigator that has already read the BoM (Book of Mormon) in 2 weeks! It's great! He has been to church once so far and enjoyed it very much. We will be teaching him the other lessons quickly; we have committed him to baptism the 22nd of March/березень.

We have new Elder in our area by the name of Elder Horn. He is fresh from America and from the great state of Arizona.... too hot for me to live there, but he is a cool guy. We got to go contacting the other day in the evening and I snapped a pic of him contacting a guy in Ukrainian, which is really hard your first week. It is still hard when you've been out as long as I have, but somehow I do it.

But I am keeping my message short this week due to a rushed schedule - if you only knew!

I love you all and I am off - PAPA (bye)!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

I will start with something sorta funny...and sad. Well, one night we went to a meeting that we had with an investigator and we were told bogus information about where he lived. On our way back the street was frozen with a nice layer of ice and a drunk man about 10 meters ahead of me slips and falls on his back, smacking the back of his head on the street. He was drunk and I told my companion, "lets help him up." So we went over, I picked up his hat, he was laying in the center of the street. We helped him up and I gave him his hat (that he did not know was his). Then he saw our tags and said NO! NO! NO! 8 times in a row. I was not trying to talk to a drunk man, I just did not want him to get hit by a car laying in the street. It was a bit funny.

Interesting to me - my new shoes that i just got six weeks ago are both split as of 2 days ago. The sole of the shoes are split. Well, what can I do. I'll only use them when its dry and use my small shoes when its really wet so my feet don't get wet. I am sending a pic of the splits.

It's was funny - we were contacting the other day and this man came up to us and wanted a Book of Mormon. I knew something was up and yeah, I was able to tell he was drunk, but my companion did not figure it out, so he gave him one. So the guy takes the book and zig-zaged down the street reading it. My companion felt bad about that. I wish I would have taken a video of him walking.
We had some good investigators this week. We have some progress. It's wonderful, and we are working hard.

I love you all! Talk to you next week!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Interesting week - I tell you I have never ran into more Jehovah’s Witnesses in my life. Yesterday we contacted a man and about 5 seconds after it started I figured him to be one. Then after about 15 seconds he pulls out the Bible on us, but as we should all know the Bible is just a big battle ground for Bible bashers, so we stayed out of that. We testified and then there was 2 others that swooped in behind him. One tried to have me read what they had in English and I kindly told him I read it already in California where I live in English and that I did read it as well in Ukrainian once before. That ended after about 6 mins of talking. It was not too bad.

There is a amazing family the other Elders are teaching. I went over there for one lesson on Sunday with Elder Palsky. My companion and Elder Hurst were 3 hours away in a small city. But the family was cool. They came to church and they loved it. They have a 9 year old son that went to church once ever with us and he had a primary song almost memorized after his first time hearing it. He also can answer gospel questions in the lessons that would normally be harder to most people. The parents were going to get a divorce but they had a lesson on how when you and your spouse become closer to the Lord you and your spouse become closer together and its true. They were going to be divorced in 5 days, then had the lesson and they stopped the divorce from finalizing and went from arguing to being a perfect example of what a family should be in a matter of about 2 days. It was amazing! They will be new members here soon.

My investigators have been cool. They accept the gospel, but then can't give up tradition, even though they have gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon. It's hard to take, but we are working hard. We have about 10 new investigators a week. We still have some people progressing, but not at the rate we are looking for. But we are working hard and will get those new investigators this week.

It's nice - I think I am staying in Ivano again. It will be nice to stay in a area longer then 6 weeks again.

Well, that’s all for now. No pics this week, no movie. I will get something for you next week. I love you all! Bye!

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Hello everyone back home (and anywhere else that may be seeing my email)! Hello!

I am doing great. I have to tell you about my companion - he makes it way too noticeable that he is not comfortable around girls. 2 girls noticed this at English class, so they walk really close up to him and ask silly things, and look at his face so he will run around a little. I tell him, "don't let them make you uncomfortable and they wont bother you!" We will see if he takes the advice. :)

I am sending you a few pics from the prep day that I told you about, like the dog and the game of risk we played on a sheet. I sat on a cold rock. :) Not everything is in the pic, but you can see a bit.

Well, our investigators are doing well, but one guy, its hard for him to make changes. He knows he needs to do them, so we are letting him read the Book of Mormon. He knows it's true more and more. We will give him time to finish before we meet with him again.

I made a cake for our investigator! He liked it a lot. It was chocolate and it came out perfect! This is the only oven I have had here that works.

Well, the weather - it is dang weird. We have had temps just at or above freezing. It's been interesting. The snow has all melted again and I no longer need my gloves. :)

Well, I hate to be boring but that's all you get this week. Bye!