Monday, August 25, 2008

INFO
Katya from my last area was baptised on Saturday. I missed it because my investigators could not make it. We had one that could go, but then his daughter and grand-daughter came to his house unannounced, but its ok. One investigator is in Germany until Wednesday, so we are doing some extra finding right now, but we are doing really good

Something funny...
We were on transport coming home from church and this lady opened my companion's camera case and pulled his camera out and then tried to put it behind her back. He is a strong man and kept her from running, and she dropped it. He said, "Do you want to buy it?" and she ran off the trollybus. It was funny.

Ok, so last night (this is great). So, I got home, started the washing machine with my clothes, and we started a roast outside on the balcony. I guess the flames got a little high and some firemen came. We saw them and wondered where they were going, and then they came to our door and banged on it a little. They said who they were in Russian, which made me say, "Can you speak Ukrainian?" even though "firemen" in Ukrainian is almost the same thing in Russian. I just had to do it. It was funny. They said open up, we asked what for, they said they wanted to see our balcony, so we let them in. They saw it and it was no big deal, so they left. Then I went into the kitchen and bathroom and they were flooded! I forgot to hook up the drain right, so it flooded the 2 rooms. We cleaned it up as I made my nightly district calls. I did not take pictures...I want to kick myself for not taking flood pics, but I was trying to make calls and clean up like 2 inches of water. It took about 6 towels and 40 mins, but its all good. :)

Pictures this week - that's one of our investigators. His name is Aleksey, and my companion is with him. A night of shot from a high floor. A baby pigeon - I hate them btw, it was on a member's balcony, and so she had me throw it off the 6th floor and it landed hard. The next picture, he lived , so there's me with the thumbs up. But if you'll notice in the top left side, that's a dog in the pic. He came up behind me sneaky-like and bit the bird! His owner was like, "what do you have in your mouth, a pigeon? Let it go!" He let it go, but that bird was a goner.

Love, Elder Hokanson

Monday, August 18, 2008

Ok, something silly - yes, for the first time ever I purchased skittles and starbursts. Ok, sour skittles are not sour, just fruity, and starbursts are in Russian but are just fine. So you get a pic. :) We were in the center of Kiev for lunch with a missionary that had a birthday. His mom paid for us to all have lunch. On the way you can see there was a man that looked like a statue, so I took a pic, dropped a small amount of money, then got a pic with him. It was fun. He was moving so slow. It made it fun to watch.

One thing that was cool that happened this week - we have an investigator that works in a rinok (or bazaar) and we stoped by on our way out. It was hot and this man we did not know says in Russian as we walk by, "Remember Ukraine," and he sprays us in the face a few times with water. We took it fine, said thank you, and walked away with smiles, because it was hot and it felt good. So just like that everybody saw that we took it without a problem. :) I was happy...it was dang hot!

My companion is SO cool. One day it was late and we were on our way home and we passed by some grandmas selling flowers. So he stops, goes back, and buys some. Then he is like, "What do I do with these?", and then he goes and starts handing them to all these older ladies on the street. It was really nice. I wanted to do that on Woman's Day, but I was too busy, but hey, it goes to show you can do it whenever you feel like. :)

In the work this week -we had Zone Conference and it was amazing. We have 2 people with baptismal commitments. We will see how they go. They are some amazing men. Other than that I am healthy and happy to serve. Talk to you next week.

З любовю, Старійшина Гокансон
With love, Elder Hokanson

He also sent this random video. It's dark for the first part and you can only hear his voice (the lights are off). He is so random! I love him! ~h

Update from Heather

Back in April Cody sent some pictures that I couldn't download due to the file type. Well, I've finally got them (I had to download a program so that I could download the file). Cody could have done it in 5 minutes, but I guess there's only room for one computer genius in our family. :)

To see the updated entry click here.

Monday, August 11, 2008

To those that want to know, I am healthy, happy, and still in Kiev. I think I told you in my last letter that I was staying in Kiev, but now it's for sure. I moved into my new place on the 6th floor in the Voskrasensky Ward. It's nicer than my last apartment on the 2nd floor in my last area. We have had a few days of exchanges due to transfers, but it's all good. We finally got back to work. I came into the area and found that we have one person with a baptismal date, and we got one more as of Saturday! It's SO cool! I am happy. My investigator in my last area is going to get baptized on the same day as one of our investigators, and it will be in our church building. It's rad. I am now on the other side of Kiev, away from the Temple Site, but it's all good.

So... info about my companion. I have a pic I am sending. He is in the sunglasses that a member had on. His name is Elder Ward. He is rad. He will be red-shirting for BYU Football when he gets home. It's cool.

The pic with me and that other Elder is a new zone leader. He is cool, and next there is a pic out in front of the mission office with elders and sisters that were there. It's always fun on transfer days! And last is a pic of me just now in the Internet Cafe with a T-shirt on and a haircut from my new companion. Not bad.

I am running out of time so I have to cut this short - no choice on my side. I love you all! Thanks for taking an interest! PAPA!

Monday, August 4, 2008

So, this week I found out that my grandpa died, but I know that everything will be OK.

We have an investigator with a date for baptism, but I found out I am leaving my area and going to be with Elder Ward. He is red-shirting for BYU football, I think. I will confirm that at a later date. It is his third transfer in the country, so we will see how much fun this is, and we are serving in the most populated part of Kiev, so this will be cool.

I want to talk about pics this week - first, my vegetables for the week. You can see I have to clean them with bleach so I don't get sick. They are freshly cleaned. 2 pics of my district; one normal and one where we surprised my companion. I taught him how to make pancakes, so there is a pic. Yes, we used flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, sprite, eggs, oil, & banana. We went bowling with a member named Gleb; he is a strong guy. And last, you can see I have a problem with McDonald's. :)

So, feelings on my transfer...I am happy. I have wanted to serve in that area, but I don't want to finish my mission there. I have only seen missionaries learn surgik there (that's mixing Russian and Ukrainian together). I hate that part of it, but its a strong ward and I am happy to serve there.

Well that's about all for right now. I will be more detailed next week, I promise!

I love you all! Talk to you next week!

з любовою, старійшина гокансон (with love, Elder Hokanson)