Monday, November 24, 2008

Well hello everybody!

We just finished a wonderful zone conference. An Elder was next to me and said, "That's kind of weird," and I said, "What?" and he pointed at our notes. They were titled, "Last Zone Conference," (mine) and "First Zone Conference" (his). Interesting! It was a really good Conference where I managed to get just less than 1 hour of sleep the night of, and did not sleep a wink before I made it there. I can't sleep on transport very easily. I wish it was a night train where we could sleep 8ish hours between travel. It's so much better. I love sleeping on trains.

Conference was good. We went over a few really good things that nobody likes doing, mainly contacting. I do it, but it is just so ineffective. They tried to go over the importance of it and not just trying to teach every contact (which i try not to do right off - i like to lead into it...people are less defensive).

Other than that, nothing too crazy going on. Church was fun. I was asked to talk, not given a time limit until the day of, and he said 10 minutes. I went 20, which was good. There was one person that did not come and give their talk, so it worked out great.

The weather is finally snowy and cold, but today it will melt a lot. There have been tons of ice and will be more tonight, with the sun melting the snow and it freezing tonight. Other than that, I think I will cut you short this week on info. I am really nudno {boring} this week. lol

PICS
pic - what my comp had for breakfast
pic - scary sign
pic - me and comps on a day train from Rivne to Lviv
video - the first good day of snow
video - me and my comps

{That's how I got the last video...weird :)}

Monday, November 17, 2008

So...news this week. I got a new companion. His name is Elder Prodan. He is from Donetsk, so he is Ukrainian. He was in the MTC with me. He came 6 days after me, and he is finishing his mission 6 weeks after me. He is a way cool guy. His name is Valeri and he recognizes my pics of Heather (she served in Donetsk, really close by).

We have 2 people with baptismal dates and some really cool people we are working with. This week is Zone Conference and we are going to Lviv. It's so tight. We get to go to Rivne on a small bus, stay the night, then take a train to Lviv in the morning. Then it's back the same way maybe, but not staying in Rivne overnight a 2nd time. It will be tight. I cant wait. It will be my last time there on my mission.

I got my last package that I will get in Ukraine. I am sure that's the last one. People remind me that I am going home soon, but it does not feel like it. It feels like I am from Ukraine. I dont remember much about what's back home, and I figure when I get back it won't even look the same. I know I dont look the same. I wish there was more time, but it's all the same.

I love you guys! Until next week!

Pictures
1. Tank - it was the first tank that came into the city saying that the war was over, so they made it a statue.
2. The building with the Lenin statue is a government building and they were tearing down the soviet sign and going to put the Ukrainian trident on it.
3. My 2 comps with a stray dog. Because they pet it, it followed us to a members house and waited like 2 hours then followed us into the city for about 40 mins before we lost it.
4. It's fall and you can see the color in the city
5 & 6. Two night shots from the bridge in town its a tight bridge that you walk across - no cars.
7. A chalk board that some kids from English did. Yes, I am also know as the hulk or the Hulkanson to some.

Monday, November 10, 2008

I have a new nickname - it's now "Grandpa" because, well I am old. But the real reason is I am a really good storyteller apparently. I kind of like it.

So yeah...things that have happened this week - we got a man with a baptismal date! A really cool young man and it sounds like there is more potential here for another one, so we will see.

So, I might be getting a 2nd companion here in Zhytomyr, so that sounds like fun. I have no idea who it is though, so we will see. I think I know who it is.

And I am sorry, but i was having problems with the lady here so I am going to cut this short today.

Ok, so pics I am sending -
Lunch I made one day. It looks like someone puked in a bowl, but it's rather good. It's noodles, eggs, tomatoes, kolbasa, and spices. I once added chicken, but not this time.

A car that was broken down in the center of the street. Yeah, lame.

A park - its getting cold here now. Ice is on the street everywhere there is water.

This piece of paper is a list of fines if you break something, like the TV is 9,000 greven if you break one!

A pic of the district last P-day bowling. It was way tight. People watched us bowl. They had come up to us and wanted to teach us how to bowl. I was like, "where we are from they are everywhere. We know what we are doing!" They watched us most of the time, and after I was asked how to I put so much spin on it. It was dang funny.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Ok... so in short this week, I am in Zhetomyr, and we are a new branch. The city has been open to missionaries for less than a year, and at church there were 13 people (and 4 are missionaries!) so that's hard. I was told by the branch president (my companion) to give a 10 min talk. I get up there, and he says make it 20 minutes. I pulled out 30 minutes somehow. My Ukrainian is not great, but some people laughed at my humor. Well they all did, but thank goodness I will only have to do it every other week. It's hard, but I will be ok.

In other news, my companion Elder Larson is cool. He's from San Diego, California. My apartment is dang big. Not as big as my Chernivtsi apartment, but it's still big and has 4 rooms, not just 3, but there is a size difference. It's way cool though, and its cold. They just turned on the heaters and our apartment was a nice 15-16 degrees.

I am only going to use gmail from now on. I feel that it saves my stuff when the power goes off TWO TIMES IN A ROW. Ok, vented there a little bit.

But yeah, my city that I am in now is nice. I love it so far. I am happy to be here, and it's a lot more responsibility, but its all good. Why not end my mission being busy?

Pictures -

Me and the Elder I replaced, my old companion Elder Lewis.
Elder Eskelsen on Khrishatik at night.

Food - weird stuff, but I liked it.

Me eating lunch I had made...it was dang good in my last apartment.
Me under the temple pic of the temple site left to right temple hotel for temple then the church building that will also be the office most likely after I am gone.