The Adventures of Elder Hokanson

Changes

2009-03-13T00:52:00.000-07:00

New hair, new blog.

Well the mission life is over, and I would like to keep this blog dedicated to just that. I started a new blog - www.mynameishoki.blogspot.com.

Old Secret Bound To Come Out

2009-03-12T23:35:00.000-07:00

Elder Ward got some contacts with his skills.
Check this out!

I'm HOME!

2008-12-19T11:40:00.000-08:00

I returned home from my mission to Ukraine on Tuesday, December 9th. I have been having a lot of fun, staying with my brother, my grandma, friends in Palmdale, and just enjoying things here in America. I will be trying to update my blog regularly, but I'm not very good at it yet, so Heather is going to have to help me. To see photos & videos of me arriving at LAX, spending time with my brother, and enjoying the snow in Palmdale, click on the links, or got to Heather's blog HERE.

Here I am in the snow...This is how I roll!

Our car, almost buried

Heather, trying to stay warm.

Heather made this collage from the Open House we had at her pop's house. It was good to see some old friends - Tom, Matt Reese, Matt MacFarlane, Ileana, Colin, Debra & her kids Parker & Addison. We had good food and chatted a lot. It was fun.

Peace out...I'll try to keep you updated.

Monday, December 1, 2008

2008-12-01T13:33:00.001-08:00

Ok, so videos - I sent one of bowling and one of a cute puppy that wanted to run away with me.

pics - Two from Thanksgiving dinner. You can not see the salad or the pie or the sweet rolls and ice cream and maybe a few other things...I may have forgotten some things. Next two - in a cool restaurant called 'Hunter.' I ate brains! Fried brains! It was ok.

I am so short on time this week that I will probably not not write much. This Internet place rocks, and they have a very interesting way to access my usb, but I got it working.

BTW, the Holiday dinner ROCKED. It was so good. You would be proud. I had more fun this your than last year, although I did watch "Remember the Titans" last year. :)

What else can I say? I am almost out of time. I love you guys!

{EIGHT days until Cody gets home!!!! ~h}

Monday, November 24, 2008

2008-11-30T18:24:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-17T10:34:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-17T09:54:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-05T10:43:00.000-08:00

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.

Monday, October 27, 2008

2008-10-27T06:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I am rushed this week - transfers.

Well, what can I say? We had a tight district. I'm sad I have to leave.

Pictures - The sister who just got baptized with the sisters, Elder Ward leading her into the font, & last my district - me with Elder Eskelsen (with his leg on me), my companion Elder Ward is under Elder Cummings, and then Sister Yashenkova and then Sister Mills.

Ok, then you get a video (if it works...it should work just fine, but anyway). The video has a few things on there that are important, so thats cool. I like the city I am going to, Zhitomer. Hear the pronunciation and you will be fine, but yes, I was getting an ulcer and I am now fixing it with meds. Thats about it.

I am running out of time. I hate this Internet place so much. It's so slow. But anyway, I have to run. I am so sorry!

Monday, October 20, 2008

2008-10-20T06:34:00.000-07:00

OK...this week for those that love me out there that have an interest in reading about my doings in the country called Ukraine -

Well, our investigator with a baptismal date had gone missing, and then he was found! He has been trying to get in contact with us and came to the church looking for us. He left not finding us or the sisters that day, and he would normally be going by way of trolley bus, but he went by foot. So the sisters saw him on their way home and told him that we would be there at the church soon. So we got in touch, and we now have his right number, and if it all works out he will be baptised this week! So nice.

I got to see a nice car accident with a tramvai and a car. It was the cars fault - you don't pull out in front of an oncoming tramvai! That's just stupid really. It looked like nobody was hurt at all, though the car was down for the count.

Other than that, we have a Stake Conference this week. It will be so nice. The First Presidency will be broadcasting from Utah.

Lame news this week - yeah, so my wallet was stolen. My driver's license, and some money and a few other things gone. Nothing super important though...no cards, so my bank card is safe and so is my MSF card.

Pics this week - pic of traffic, plus video. People from English class, and one day tracting a really tall building.

Monday, October 13, 2008

2008-10-13T12:18:00.000-07:00

I am really short on time, so I am only sending photos and descriptions - I know, I am lame. Sorry!

My companion Elder Ward reading, with the changing of the seasons in the background.

"Grown- up Claw Machine" - yeah, that's how they deal with people parked in the wrong place here

That's a nice car!

Center Kiev - walking home after General Conference, first session.

My first win of 'Risk' ever!

Comics created by some elders...they were funny.

Me with a kid named Kirill on my neck. He thought that while I was kneeling he could climb on me. He was surprised when I lifted him. He is 16 and dang tall.

Our banana bread making day

Me, with my companion and the sisters in my district in the background. It was an emergency drill and we were gathering at the stairwell.

That's all for now. I love you all! Papa!

Monday, October 6, 2008

2008-10-06T17:44:00.000-07:00

Ok...so what's new this week? You probably know a lot already from General Conference - there's going to be a Temple going up in Rome! Tell me that's not crazy! The talks were so amazing. I have never seen a conference quite like this one. President Eyring's talk was amazing, especially how the idea that serving will get easier after a mission or with time. That was funny. I think every person here laughed a bit.

We had 2 exchanges this week. It was lots of fun. I spent a lot of time without my regular companion, off doing other things. I got to go with Elder Rector; he is a cool kid. He was born in Ukraine and was adopted by Americans when he was 4 years old. I also went off with Elder Eskelsen for 48 hours. That was fun. I went to Brovary - I loved it there so much! I saw one of my families that I love. They were way tight. And an old investigator, I played soccer with him, and it was so fun. I did not score, but we won. I destroyed my body though...I am so sore now. My right leg got so worked that I can still barely lift it, and it happened on Saturday. Not only that, but I got the ball away from the opposite team and passed it to Radik, and he tried to clear it, and it got me right in the chin. My jaw hurts a bit, but its all good.

This crazy thing happened - I was in a parking lot to get some things printed off for English class, and I saw a disturbance in the parking lot. This man came out with a baseball bat and then started to get loud and put the bat in the other man's car a bit, then started like this front passenger, then back right, then back left get out. Then the driver and his passenger got out and they were all huge. The guy with the bat then got scared fast, and the driver grabbed him by the ears, moved him a bit, calmly said a few words, smacked him on the cheek, and let the man walk away. Moral here - don't get road rage. That could have gone real bad.

And dang, I am sorry, I love sending pics, but these computers don't seem to want to read my card reader anymore. Its lame. My friend Elder Taylor is not here to let me use his. ;_;<---crying

Hey, I will end this for today. I love you all!

I miss you all з чосом я буду бачити вас
(with time i will see you)

Monday, September 29, 2008

2008-09-29T08:28:00.001-07:00

OK, so let's see if I can keep this a less-random email :)

So, this week we had Zone Conference, and it was really good. It touched on a lot of topics about what's needed in our mission and a lot of missionaries, including me, are figuring some things out that we had never realized. Some are just now getting it, and it's their last transfer. Mind you I only have 2 left! This one, and the next. That's a little more then 2 months! That's crazy! So you all know, December 9th is the day I will be coming home.

After Zone Conference this week (7 hours long - wow), we had to jam to our lesson. We were 15 minutes late, but it was all good. We re-planned our whole lesson plan on transport on the way and implemented what was taught during Zone Conference. Wow, the spirit was so strong, and it was an amazing lesson that just flowed and led up to a powerful challenge to commit to baptism. And he said he would! It'll be on the 25th of October. It was amazing!

Other than that, we just had a normal week. We set our goals high, and we hit every goal this week! Not only that, but it's hard to do that during a week where we had exchanges and interviews and zone conference. So much time was used for those things, but we still hit our goals!

I'm sending pics - 1) Elder Horne & I. He started his mission in Ivano, my last transfer out there, and he has followed me around a bit. 2) Zone Conference pic 3) What a disappointing lunch! Yeah, I won't even say anything about it, but I know Derek would have loved it. One Elder came up to me and was like, "I am unhappy with lunch - I was hoping for Vasuvios Pizza!" It's the best pizza in town. Pics from our church activity - 4) A lot of sisters and investigators making cards and then 5) a few kids playing around, the way it should be. We played ping pong and street hockey, and there was a spiritual thought.

So, that's all you get for now. I love you all!

Monday, September 22, 2008

2008-09-22T18:35:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you first about the weather this week. It has rained for a solid week, stopping at most for a few hours at a time!

Some things that happened this week; church was fun. An investigator said that a lesson had a really strong message. He enjoyed it. It touched on the plan of salvation. It was way good.

We have set our goals for the transfer, made a plan, and are ready to work hard to reach our goals. The beginning of the transfer is always rad. We have Zone Conference this week, first week of the transfer. It's going to be good. They always are; its like a spiritual boost every 6 weeks.

We met an interesting man on the bus the other day that thought he could speak English. It was his birthday, and he was drunk. It was sad. He was only 23, and he was toasted, but it was fun talking to him. He really thought he could speak English. He couldn't, but he spoke Russian just fine. He said it was beautiful that we could talk to each other even though we speak different languages. I think it is too. The other people around us liked our conversation as well. :)

Some Elders had a space heater in another area that they were using, and it stopped working correctly and went up in flames! I don't even have a space heater, never had one here in Ukraine. I don't think I really even need one.

Ok, so pics for this week - First we have a "Risk" shot. My comp creamed me...I saw it coming, but there was nothing I could do. Next is a photo of our district, and a shot of 10 trolley busses. The next pic is what caused the traffic for over and hour and 30 mins. Next a shot of my companion in the rain that we had to walk in because of traffic. We could not take our trolley bus. Those trolley busses comes every 5 Min's, so that means they were like that for over 50 minutes. Then we walked the route and there was no busses for the hour or so it took to walk home! The last photo is of me in the PC cafe, the best one that I have ever been to in Ukraine. It has about 200 computers and they are dang fast. I took the pic to show my new haircut my companion gave me.

Videos - traffic, cause of traffic, and just walking in the rain with nobody in our path having a random conversation. (*note - I combined all 3 videos together again* ~h)

Monday, September 15, 2008

2008-09-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody! This is Elder Hokanson...I really want to you to see my pics this week!

OK this was a funny week!

First my companion got a package. Look at how that bad boy was sent...no address! It's amazing that it somehow made it at all, but some things were missing. Then you get to see our elevator problem - we got stuck! All 6 of us! It was so funny. Last, we went to this church member's house and they have the cutest little girl. My companion switched jackets with her and she thought it was hilarious!

Ok...so back to the elevator. Yeah, after district meeting we were on an exchange, and the other elders stooped at our apartment for some cpravi (stuff). I was grabbing stuff to change in for service. We, all 6 of us, pack into this elevator. I have had so many elders in a elevator before, and have never been stuck, but we hit the button, the doors close, and we should move, but it does not move at all. We cant open the door or anything. Thank goodness there was this girl out there that went to tell her mom to call the guy to come save us. Boy, was he not happy when he found all six of us in there! But he had saved the elders stuck in it before. In the past there were 8 elders stuck in that elevator, about 3 months ago. He said, sarcastically, "good job!" And people say Ukrainians are not sarcastic! :)

Side note: my companion is the only one I have ever had that can cook! He made us a mayonaise cake the other day that was amazing, and he made a syrup for my buttermilk pancakes that was just amazing, and he won't share the recipe, but its ok. :)

Transfers- I am staying, and so is my district, so you know.

Well, I will just say the church is true! I am happy! I love you all! Thanks for reading - PAPA!

Here's a bunch of videos that Cody sent from when they were stuck in the elevator. I combined them all into one video, so it's a little bit jumpy. :)

Buki update for Cody

2008-09-14T23:40:00.000-07:00

Ethan (Buki) had his third birthday on Friday, and we had a family party for him tonight. I took a ton of pictures and videos as a good aunt should and I wanted to share a couple with Cody.

Cody and Ethan have a special bond, and Cody would always buy Ethan goldfish crackers. I bought some for Ethan on Cody's behalf, and he enjoyed them very much!

Here are just a few of the photos from my stay in Palmdale -

My brother Derek with his 2 boys, Ethan and Tai (Derek owns a Dojo and was in his "work clothes")

My other brother Nathan with the boys...Cody is not going to recognize this mountain man! We keep trying to convince him to shave and get a hair cut!

Tai in the baby bounce house...he loved it!

Ethan with his cupcake tower than my mom & I "designed". He had a "Cars" theme for his birthday...he loved it!

I gave Ethan a race car for his birthday. He is getting to be such a big boy!

We had a fun time this weekend, and we missed Cody very much, but we know he is where he is supposed to be and we are so proud of him! We love you!

Monday, September 8, 2008

2008-09-08T08:40:00.000-07:00

Since Cody couldn't upload pics, I decide to upload an oldie but goodie. :)

Cody & Heather, Wrightwood, January 2006

Ok, for this week, it started off cool with a sports day on Preparation day, then I had a sore throat on Tuesday. On Wednesday for district meeting, it about killed me. I had a cough and a head ache, runny nose, sore throat. I was on an exchange, but that left me inside the apartment almost all week. My numbers* got cut in half. It sucks. I feel lame. I did not do anything cool at all this week, but I got lots of rest, which should set my energy levels higher. It's easier to wake up now, even though I am still a little sick. The last time I spent most of the week in my apartment, I was way energized when I got out again.

Something silly - Ok, me and my companion shaved our arms with an epilator! It hurt so bad, but my arms are so smooth...wow! And my companion had like, the thickest hair I have ever seen, and his arms are still a tiny bit red. We did it on Tuesday last week, so wow.

My computer sucks this week...it wont let me put pictures on it for some reason. So, no photos this week. Next week I will get something on there.

I love you guys! Until next week!

*Numbers are goals that a companionship sets for themselves each week, and at the end of the week they compare numbers to see if they made their goals. Since he was sick and unable to go outside, they were unable to contact people and share the gospel, so he feels guilty that they didn't meet their goals this week.

Monday, September 1, 2008

2008-09-03T12:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, I almost could not send pics this week because I don't have my card reader, but then I saw Elder Taylor from my group. Last week I convinced him to buy a card reader and you know what...he got one! So I borrowed his. Woot!

Well, info for the week - it has been weird. We had a threesome companionship from Monday -Friday morning. Elder Brooks' companion was in Bulgaria for his Visa, so he was with us while his companion was on what I like to call "vacation" - they don't speak Ukrainian there, there is no conjugation, and they speak a bit of Russian, but these elders don't speak Russian. So they had a nice flight, hung out, had Subway, KFC, Dunkin' Doughnuts, and Burger King. Vacation! There were other things, but they did not have the time. It's ok though, but yeah, it was cool - Elder Brooks is from the same group as Elder Ward (my companion), so it was tight, and Brooks is from California, so that's way rad. I also went on exchanges in Brovary with Elder Eskelsen (if you remember, that was my 2nd area and he is my old companion). I did not get to do much - he got a little sick, so we took a taxi home after walking almost to our appointment, like 5 mins away, then stayed inside for a bit until his tummy felt better. Then we got back out on the street where we got rained on, did some contacting and advertised for English classes. Then we went back in and planned, and I did my nightly calls. We were going to play soccer too, but it rained, so all the people I wanted to play soccer with could not come unfortunately, so our plans changed. We went to a baptism for a man from Nigeria named Jesse. It was cool, we had lunch, went back to my area, and went to a church activity. It was fun.

pictures - ok, so the 2 Elders I was with happened to have their 6 month anniversary on the mission this week, so they burned ties. It was cool. Next we have a pic of me making nightly phone calls. Brovary has no home phone, so I had to do them on the cell phone. Then 2 shots of the Temple. It's tight! You can see there is a basement for baptisms, 1st floor lobby, 2nd floor 2 session rooms, 3rd floor the Celestial room and sealing room. That's about all I have heard so far.

Well, that's all you get today. I know, not too cool, but it's what you get. I love you! BYE!

Monday, August 25, 2008

2008-08-25T17:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-18T11:14:00.001-07:00

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

2008-08-15T23:51:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-04T09:21:00.000-07:00

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)

Monday, July 28, 2008

2008-07-31T10:38:00.000-07:00

What can I say...transfers are coming up, and I don't know whats going to happen. Am I staying, am I going? I don't know. I am OK with it ether way. If I stay I want to stay with Elder Imangazi. If I go I hope I go to to a place out West, or go to one of my favorite places. Wow, I need to make notes of what happened. We went to a really cool celo/village.

OK pics - I got up at 6am, made breakfast, got in the shower, got dressed, ate breakfast, had plenty of time, and forgot to shave. I was out the door before I noticed, so that's me unshaven for once. Next, a mom, her 2 daughters and one's husband in a celo. And last, me spoiling a dog with some scratching. And there's a short video, and I say something in Ukrainian, but it's not important. The view is beautiful.

We had an investigator show up to a Sacrament Meeting for the first time. She wants to get baptized, but she will have to have a few lessons first. She is the wife of a church member and they have a cute little girl. So cool!

OK, this week I am cutting it short, so PAPA! I love you all!

Monday, July 21, 2008

2008-07-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

What's new this week? Well, there is a first time for everything. Our investigator said she was not feeling well, so we got "sobakoovale" (that's Ukrainian - we turned dog in to a verb and put it in past tense) at her baptism! So yeah, she did not show up! But other new things; we found a cool old Russian building in our area, so I got a pic of me in front. We went to a member's house where the 2 year old thought it necessary to give me all of her toys. I took the picture even before she could give them all to me. Elder Eskelsen (my old companion) had a birthday, so that's his birthday shirt that a few elders made for him. And yes, that is a bottle of Fanta that is almost empty. Yes, it's that good. It says "Fanta World Taste from Africa - Apple." It's so good! And with it are two McDonald's toys... I had 2 happy meals this week!

Other then that, I am healthy. The weather is getting really hot, but I have managed to keep our apartment below 80 degrees. It hit 79.5. I find if it hits 80, I can't sleep.

That's about all that's new that I can think of right now. Papa!!!

Monday, July 14, 2008

2008-07-14T10:18:00.001-07:00

I love you all for taking interest in my life week by week! Well, let me start...

This week has been good. We started off on preparation day by going to the Pechersky Lavra, a church where you pay money to go in. I took a few pictures. I am sending you two - one of me yes, drinking the water from a fountain with a young boy looking at me. Yeah, I am not sure if that was a good idea because now my stomach is feeling weird. It has been a few days now! And I have a pic of a wall in the old church of Jesus whipping people to get them out of a temple. It's my favorite picture that I took, I think.

We had an exchange and I was in Obolon where I saw some cool graffiti, so I took a pic. It says "life is beautiful," so I thought, "Why not take a pic?"

I went to English on a rainy day and a member was on the micro bus with us and it was a really old bus. It had leaks, so she pulled out her umbrella. I have never seen that before. It was cool, so I took a pic. It's funny, but I didn't use the flash. I did now want to freak out the driver or anything with the roads so wet. (note from Heather...he did not send this picture. I guess we'll see it next week :)

I had to go to the office to work on our English Class invitations because we are opening up our English conversation classes in our area now. It will be better for us; only 5 min travel time instead of 45 mins one way. I was in the office and as you can see one of the office elders, Elder Wahl, was doing some of his normal activities, so I took a pic so you can get a feel for the office here in Kiev. I don't know if that's all they do, but whatever.

News with our investigators - Sister Oksana is getting Baptized this Saturday. It will be cool. You will remember her as the older lady that was sitting with me and my companion and Vlad, a member that was with us that day.

We serve in an International Branch and a normal ward, but this week the Mission President was in Kiev for church, so he came to the Branch. It was so cool. I met his other 2 boys, so now I have met all 3 boys and his wife.

Until next week! Papa! (Bye!)

Monday, July 7, 2008

2008-07-07T08:23:00.000-07:00

Hello! What's new this week...well, I got my package from Heather and I had an exchange. Other than that we had a normal week of lessons. Oh, and we got the opportunity to go to the dentist. My companion needed to have some work done. We have to go tomorrow as well to finish. Wow, I have seen the inside of a few of the Ukrainian dentist's office, but this one was just like an American dental office, and heck they even spoke English! So cool!

We have seen some progress with some investigators. I don't have time to give all the details of whats going on, but we are working hard and they are doing well. The members are so willing to help us right now, and that's so wonderful.

No photos today...ok, I will send 3! We had a companionship exchange. Elder Lewis, my old companion, and Elder Larson came over for a day. That was sweet to do work with him again. I got to see that Buki loves me... but his hand writing looks a lot like Heathers! =Ю And last, there was a holiday like Constitution Day or something, so center Kiev had no cars driving on it and I did not have to walk through the underpass like normal to get to and from the office/metro.

This week you're getting cut short - we have a busy day, so talk to you later! Папа!! (Bye!!)

Monday, June 30, 2008

2008-06-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

OK something funny from last week - the other elders came to the same Internet place as us by coincidence, and we all ended at the same time and so we went bowling. Elder Jacobs had a gutter ball that popped out of the lane and smashed a 3 foot tall speaker. Luckily he did not have to pay for a thing since it was not his fault. It was dang funny though!
At the International Branch yesterday our Branch President had a bow tie on! It was really funny when he was on the stand. I was laughing into the hymn book looking at him with that bow tie on. It just did not seem like your normal Branch President.
Info about my Mission President - President Davis is now just Brother Davis. He is no longer our Mission President. We have now moved on to President Steinagel (I might not have spelled that right - I have never seen his name spelled in English).
We had a baptism - it was way cool, but the Elders that went to fill the font left and the guard turned off the water and unplugged the drain. So when we got there, the font was empty! So some of the other elders and my companionship had to do a bucket brigade to get enough water in the font. So I missed the first part of the baptism doing the water. Then we had a small game of basketball.
Earlier this week I had a spider bite me while I was working out. I sent a photo so you can see it. Yeah it's getting darker in color. I had a mission doctor look at it. He said to keep a eye on it. It already stopped itching as of today, but it looks worse, so I hope it gets better.
Today we are going to have a BBQ and play sports for the 4th of July Celebration because on the 4th we cant do anything. I am short on time this week so I gotta go.
Pictures - This Ukrainian Babushka made me lay down - you can't say no to a babushka! The bow tie! Before and after the Baptism, and the spider bite.

Videos - Ads in the metro through the window. Pretty cool! The Temple Site in Kiev. The bucket brigade!

Talk to you next week. Love you all! Papa!

Monday, June 23, 2008

2008-06-23T08:44:00.000-07:00

OK something silly this week - I think the man was drunk, but as we were walking down the street this man starts singing, "Yankee Go To Home! Yankee Go To Home! Yankee Go To Home! Yankee Go To Home! Yankee Go To Home!" I thought it was funny. I did not have the heart to tell him it was bad grammar.

For this week - we've got some news. We have one baptismal date that is set for the 28th and we will have a great time! We have one more that will be in about two to three weeks...we are excited. I will get a chance to go to the Temple site again. So cool, and they are amazing people.

Man where to start...oh yeah, one of our investigators is going out of town for a few months. We will miss him. It's sad...he is a good kid.

Ok, silly again...a member was talking in church and she said something like, "This the church is true and perfect," and yeah I know it may not seem funny to you, but she was funny. She continued, "for example, the sacrament cups; we only use them once and the orthodox church uses one cup for years!" Yeah, we all laughed pretty hard, but she was really tired...really! She was up all night. We had a meeting with her that night, but we went to her place and nobody was home. We finished our day, went home and called another member, and she said that the woman went to her house, was talking, and 5 mins later fell asleep. They just let her sleep, and some time later she just wakes up and says, "The missionaries are going to kill me!" and started running to her place. But we had only waited 15 mins for her so we were long gone.

Oh yeah, I forgot to say there was a free Paul McCartney and Lenny Kravitz concert last week that I could not go to. Yeah, I wanted to, but its okay.

Pictures - They are of us doing service on Saturday and having a picnic that was ruined by tons of rain. It was great we cleaned up trash along a lake. It was lots of fun. I filled like 5 bags, but I think I did less than most of the people that were there. We had about 20 people show up and it did not take long at all. It was a total of about 5 hours for everything. It was cool, then after that we ran home, took a shower, went to 3 more meetings to do everything, and we did not have a real lunch, but it was worth it. The last pic is of a "Papa Johns" it says, but I've never been inside.

Ok and one more thing...I think we found a skin head out here that does not like asians...he was kind of a jerk. I've seen him one time, but don't think I will see him ever again, though all in all it was a wonderful week.

That's all you get this week - PAPA!!

Videos - my apartment from space, and our picnic when the rain came.

Monday, June 16, 2008

2008-06-16T06:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am starting this off...the big question is probably, "Am I staying in my area for the next transfer?" Yes I am! Transfers came early...it was a week short of a full transfer to have everything ready for the new Mission President that will be starting on the 29th of June. It's crazy.

I am still district leader. I am ok with that. My district is dang cool still.

The elders that are going home today, I got to see them all. They will be missed. There are some cool guys going home.

Info about the area in which I am serving is cool, some good news. We have a new person with a baptism date! It's a wonderful woman named Oksana and she is 64. She is smart, funny and speaks both Russian and Ukrainian. It's nice that she does because I can understand Russian a bit, but it hurts my head to try that hard. Her date is for the 28th of this month. It's sweet, not only that, but there is also a young boy getting baptized the same day, and today we are meeting with a woman that wants to be baptized too. We are going to ask her to commit for this date on the 28th as well. It's so cool... this area has not had a convert baptism in over one year, so the members are really happy. What I love to say to them and other missionaries is that the area is only dead when you say its dead; that's when it dies for real.

Today I checked for a package, but it might be here tomorrow, but I don't think I can go check due to the fact that transfers are going down and it's dang busy. One more body in the office is hard, they might not like it. But I think I might...I have some time to go in.

Last Saturday we went and played soccer out in the rain a bit. I am not sick. Ukrainians always think I am going to get sick for doing silly things like that, but in general it was dang fun. I was on the winning team! I was goal keeper.

Sunday is when I found out about that other person that wants to be baptized. It was really a really great day. We went out to a member's house for dinner. I had salmon for the first time in a long time, but I would have you all know that Heather's salmon is so much better.

Okay, you get 2 videos today! 1st video - fire on the tramvai. We were on the way to a investigator and our tramvai stopped and there was a fire. Cool right? 2nd video - it's us in the metro as you can see. This is my district (well, not counting the senior couple).

Pictures - they all are good. Ok, we have the food for Sister Davis's Bday. We ran to the office to have that on Pday last week. Then we have me drinking kvas from one of those nice, big, yellow tanks on the street. We have the nice lunch that the senior couple got for us the other day. It cost half the money I use for the week, but if I had to go there again I would so order it. It was amazing! As you can see I could not help myself with that chicken. The temple site is moving dang fast. This is the 3rd Saturday I have been there and you can see its going fast. The last photo is of our MCL Vlad on the left, Oksana, my companion Elder Imangazi, and me.

I will go for more details next week, but for now this should be good.

Monday, June 9, 2008

2008-06-09T06:31:00.001-07:00

OK, what to say....you all want to know what I did for my Birthday. I played Football, and no, not American. We played with these guys from Nigeria. It was lots of fun.

On my preparation day we played American Football, we played basketball, and we played Ultimate Frisbee. I got a can of root beer from a member in the International Branch, and there is a familiar picture...yes, the kvac* is back on the street, and it is even better then last year's kvac!

Next week I promise I will start with this email, so I will have a full, wonderful letter, because I feel bad that I feel like I am leaving you all in the dark with this here. I promise to write this first so I don't run out of time!

I love you all and I will talk more next week! Thanks for the birthday love! PAPA!

*Kvac is that fermented bread drink that Heather thinks is nasty, but obviously Cody has some Ukrainian blood, because he loves it! :) ~Heather

Love from Buki!

2008-06-09T00:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday - Take 2

2008-06-07T23:59:00.000-07:00

As you can tell the first video is poor quality...I accidentally filmed it sideways, so the program I used to rotate it also reduced the quality. This was a video I took later, but Ethan didn't sing as well in this one...he was probably thinking, "Are you crazy lady...I just did this earlier!" I had to make him do it again just in case I couldn't rotate the first one, but it was cute too and has a little Tai Tai in it, so I had to post it too!

Happy Birthday Cody!

2008-06-07T23:55:00.000-07:00

Since Ethan can't write you a letter, he decided to talk to you on a video!!!

Monday June 2, 2008

2008-06-02T20:47:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my brothers Kyle and Hoss! Sorry I'm not there! Next year I will be there, I swear! Ok, I know it's bad to swear. Moving on...

This week was cool! I found Imported Dr.Pepper! You will see it in the pics!

There was a baptism in the Ward, an 8-year-old. It was on Saturday. It was lots of fun. I sent pics. The group photo has some of us that were there. Of the five ladies, the mother is second from the left (Zhenya) and the young man was Nazar, the youngest you see, right in the middle.

The baptism was at the ward building at the Temple Site. I put a small video on there and a pic of the Temple progress. It was announced to be built in 1998, but construction started less then a year ago. Gotta love that Ukrainian red tape!

Ok, I really want to write more, but we are meeting with a less-active young man to have lunch and play some sports, so I am off. I will try to have better planned emails in the coming weeks.

Ok, I love you all! I am off!

Monday, May 26, 2008

2008-05-26T10:25:00.001-07:00

Privit, or HI!

It's me, Elder Hokanson. We had Zone Conference again, and it went well.

Weird things this week - I was on my way somewhere and I saw a teenage kid going somewhere, and and it looked like he had on only underwear and a shirt, or just a shirt. I said to myself, "Put on some pants!" He was with some friends and then he ran across the street, and it turns out he had nothing on. That's a first for me.

We have been working with members a lot here, trying to get those who haven't been to church in a long time to come back. One less active man came to church yesterday! It was great!

Sorry this is so short, but this Internet place is dang slow today. I am already going over time.

My pics - First one is of me in the metro, waiting for the train. The second is my companion, walking by the lake thingy by our apartment. The last is of the escalator going up from the metro...it's way far underground!

So, I am off for today. I will talk to you later, next week!

I love you all!

Monday, May 19, 2008

2008-05-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

To all of you that are wondering where I am...I am in Kiev again and I am a District Leader, whatever that means.* My new companion has been in Ukraine for one transfer (so far 6 weeks), but he is from Kazakhstan. He is my first comp from outside of the USA. It's interesting. His first name is something weird...I can't remember, but people call him Max. His last name is Imangazi. In Russian/Ukrainian it sounds more like Imagazinov. He is a good guy.

I am serving in Venohradar (might be easier to say Venogradar). I am sending pics - one from my train ride,* and one of me and my new comp standing next to each other. And the last one - American food! I got to go to an American church member's house. He works for the embassy. He gave us root beer, mac and cheese, and Chex!

I don't want to be cut off this week, so I am only sending this small bit. I will get used to this Internet place again...it is the first Internet place I ever used when I first got here in Ukraine!

I love you all! Thanks for reading this week!

*Heather's Notes* Cody is trying to be modest, but the District Leader is essentially the leader of all the missionaries in his district (usually 6 - 8 missionaries). He reports to the Zone Leader who reports to the Mission President. It's a smaller position of authority, but it's still an honor that his Mission president would trust him with it! :) Also, the picture Cody took from the train is cool because that's how they got the idea for the Ukrainian Flag - It's only 2 colors, blue on top of yellow. It represents blue skies over yellow fields, just like the picture! :)

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

2008-05-14T09:22:00.001-07:00

Sorry...computer problems...my original email was deleted and I have to do another, so I only have time to attach and explain my pics.

First we have my last District photo. Second, I went to the Carpathian Mountains last week and this is a end shot after we all made it. Yes, it was windy, rainy, sunny, and it hailed until I had a brain freeze, but it was worth it, every step up there and back. The last shot is one of the many wonderful views along the way that we got to witness.

That's all I have time for... I hate my email sometimes.

*NOTE FROM HEATHER* We got to talk to Cody last Sunday, so we have a little more information. He is getting transferred today. He doesn't know where to yet. He is getting a new Mission President in June. His Preperation Days are changing from every Wednesday to every Monday starting next week! He is very happy and loves Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. The language is tough of course, but he's comfortable with it and conversing well with people.
Make sure you click on the pictures so they get show up actual size to be able to enjoy the scenery and see more detail. You can also save them to your computer by right clicking and choosing "save picture." Enjoy!

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

2008-05-07T06:23:00.000-07:00

Hi there! Its me Goki again and and we have had one good week! We had a baptism and so did the sisters. It was great, although this week I have not been feeling too well, and so I have had 1 and 1/2 sick days in the apartment almost. But I have felt much better today, so hopefully everything goes well. I get a phone call for Mother's Day, so as usual you get less email this week, but I will send a video of what we did last Prep Day. Yeah, we have a sweet park in town with a roller coaster. Its not Magic Mountain or anything, but you get a small feel with this short video of my district (just elders, not the sisters) and of the ride. My companion is front right; he is funny, right?

Sorry about the photos last week! This PC place uses a different zip format I think, so about that I will have to figure something out.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

2008-04-30T13:01:00.000-07:00

Hello people that I love and that have an interest in my life here in Ukraine!

We had one great Zone Conference this last week. We had Elder Gibbons from the Seventy, a General Authority, speak to us about Church Members and how we can improve our work with them and strengthen them. It was lots of fun. We had the Zone Leaders in town. Elders Jacobs and Gassaway came down and did companion exchanges and gave baptismal interviews. Lubabir is getting baptised this Saturday! He asked that Elder Eskelen baptize him. We have 2 baptisms coming up this weekend. Saturday will be lots of fun, and this week he had a change - short notice! We lost a sister to a transfer. Sister Mills will be gone and we are getting a new sister maybe Thursday when they return by train. When we saw their train off there was a dog fight right after. It's so crazy... there are packs of dogs in every city, and lots of them. This is the only one I have seen on the train tracks though.

Oh man, while 4 of us Elders were walking together Elder Horn was hit very lightly by a car. I mean, what the heck was with that? The guy saw all 4 of us! He almost hit me too. Nobody was hurt, but the guy had the nerve to honk his horn. People think they own the road here, I swear.

This weekend we had sports day as usual, and right before we got there a large German Shepherd bit a kid in the bottom! Right as we got there we saw people chase the thing away, but I think everything was OK. He did not get bit hard. But it turned out to be a really fun day and week.

The pictures this week - first would be Elder Jacobs (Zone Leader) holding Elder Kaufman, our District Leader. They are from the same group and are very close. Next, me with a few cuts after sports day; I tripped and fell on asphalt during a passing play in American football when someone tried to jook, me but failed and then just tripped me. Next we have the L'viv train station. Zone Conference is in L'viv. Next, we have a familiar image of an RM (Returned Missionary) sister that happened to be in L'viv. Her name is Natasha Burynchenko, the shortest sister I have seen in this mission. She is also Heather's best friend from when she served in Ukraine. And last, a pic with me and Elder Larson from Apple Valley. That was the last time I will see him in Ukraine. He was one of the few missionaries from California. The band aids were from something that happened to him while on a marshrootka (transportation van). Some drunks thought it wise to pull out a knife, but they were kicked from the micro bus and Elder Larson was stitched up and all is well.

That is all the fun stuff this week, so goodbye!

Love, Elder Hokanson

*NOTE* The file with the pictures was corrupted, so we'll have to see them next week! :( *UPDATE* I finally downloaded a program that let me open the file! Yeah! :)

*NOTE 2* It took even me awhile to get this, but Goki stands for Hokanson. In Ukrainian they don't have an 'H' sound, so they use 'G' and make it kinda breathy. :) So he has a 'G' in the beginning of his name there. I know the Elders call him "Hokie', so in "Ukrainian" that would be Goki. :) ~Heather

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

2008-04-23T09:38:00.001-07:00

So the week... not too much to say. It was fun though!

There was a senior couple here, The Kings, that served here before I started my mission. They visited from Wednesday to Monday. It was cool. They are from London and sound like Brits. It was fun; their son just got married to a Ukrainian girl the week earlier. They had a reception here at the church. We brought our investigator, had a lesson, then went down to the 2nd floor where the party was. It was lots of fun. We could have stayed because we had an investigator there, but we went off into a part of the city that missionaries don't go to often. Its like a village inside the city. That's what it looks like. There were lots of pretty flowers and stuff, barking dogs; small, and big and scary. I have pics with flowers; some nice old people gave them to me and Elder Horn. All 3 companionships went there, so you see a shot of them. The weather has been crazy - it's hard to contact when its raining with thunder and lightning on the street. We do what we can though. You all saw my pic where I forgot my umbrella - yeah, I was in the rain only 10 mins that day without an umbrella and I was soaked! Often people don't have umbrellas and people don't go out on the street to hang out if there is rain. I don't want to go on a tangent, so I'll end that there.

Please enjoy the pics! Until next week! ;-Þ

Monday, April 16, 2008

2008-04-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

In general, the cool, notable things that happened this week - Well the baptism, it went down well. Lots of people came, lots of support, and it was fun and spiritual and kind of interesting. I was called as the 1st counseler in the Elder's Quorum, and we had a party at the church for English. It was lots of fun. The church has 3 floors, and we had a movie and card games on the top floor and on the 2nd floor it was a place to mingle and to play ping pong. Both floors had food and drinks. I have a problem with ping pong - I never lose! So I win and then just give the paddle away so other people can play. :) I am still too competitive at sports. There was some other crazy things that went down this week, but I just wont talk about them this week.

Oh, this was way cool - a musical college in the area had a party or something, and tons of kids were walking in the street and chanting, down our street, at night. It was way cool. There were over 100 kids, and there was so many people that cars could not pass them. They were throwing glass bottles and stuff. I was safe of course in my 3rd floor apartment, but it was cool.

So, pics this week for you - you get one after the baptism; we all went to the church and had pizza and we were cleaning up, so you see us helping out. :) You get a pic at the baptism, right after the ordinance. They are still in the water. And I left my umbrella at the church one day, and we had to walk to the church for an appointment and since my umbrella was at the church and it was raining a lot, I was so wet. My jacket was wet all the way through, but it was all good.

I love all of you! Talk to you next week!

*note from Heather* I love how he keeps saying "In general." We really don't say that a lot in English, but in Russian, they say that a lot. They say "v obshay" (in general) before they start a paragraph, or at the end sometimes, and I assume it's the same in Ukrainian. It's so funny to me how he is speaking Ukrainian in English, if you know what I am saying. I remember I did that a lot. I still do it in fact. When praying, if you ask for a blessing in Russian you say something like, "Please bless the children, so that they were healthy." In English we would just say, "Please bless the children to be healthy." So if you ever hear me say, "blah blah blah, so that they were blah blah blah," you know I am speaking Russian in English. :)

Update from Heather

2008-04-14T08:58:00.000-07:00

Natasha Fihel, a friend of mine in Chernivtsi, took these of Elder Hokanson and his fellow elders and emailed them to me. It was such a nice surprise! Thank you Natasha!

~Heather

Monday, April 9, 2008

2008-04-09T08:36:00.000-07:00

Hello to all that read this! I am doing ok, but it is that season again and the flowers are blooming and the frees are getting green and yes, that means allergies! They are no fun at all. I have been taking Benadryl the last few days and I am drowsy. It's been raining and other then that it's all nice. I am on a computer with a USB that works, so you get pics! My comp & I with him about to blow out a candle that is in his plove on his one-year-on-the-mission mark. A pic of my district at lunch at a place where the lights went out so we had a candle light lunch you could say. The next is a pic of my companion in the cooking part of the kitchen with my shirt on - I taught him how to make Borshch (Ukrainian soup), and don't worry, my shirt is fine; beets don't stain. :) Then the last is a pic of the edge of town; we had a lesson and we got dogged, so we took a pic from the most southern part of town.

About the work - it's going well. Our investigator is getting baptized this weekend on Saturday. We have a few other investigators with dates and we will see where they go, but its going well here.

I had the weirdest day ever; we were on the street and every drunk person on the street seemed to want to come up to us. It was really lame - we can't really talk to them because they don't know whats going on and they don't understand anything, but that day ended well, just a rough start is all.

But this week in general has been uneventful - Love you all! Papa! (Bye!)

Update from Heather

2008-04-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

I put this here so Cody can check this blog super quick next week and get a peek at his future niece or nephew! Congrats Daniel & Marybel!!!!!!

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

2008-04-04T10:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Gram!! Happy Birthday Mom!!

Well, they switched things up on me - I thought I was going to be in Chernivtsy with Elder Kaufman, but I am with Elder Eskelcen. He is from Washington State, a really cool guy. He is 3 months younger then me on the mission (2 transfers). He is 20 years old, was a pole vaulter in high school, and we live in a really cool city. Chernivtsy does not have many of the big Soviet buildings that are in most cities. The ones here are spread out and are not much more then 5 floors high and the city is on hills; it's not flat like the cities I have served in before. It's really cool. The apartment in which I live is nice; it's really big. My USB does not work at this computer or I would send you pics. It has a big bedroom, a study room, kitchen and bathroom and a spare room; they are all really big and the ceilings are really high. We have these interesting heaters - I have to use matches to start them each day. They are like cement and tile and you can only have them on for 30-40 mins, then you turn off the gas and they stay hot for hours. We use them before bed and when we wake up and it's really nice all day.

So the first day here was interesting. I had to pack my luggage all night in Ivano and the power went off for a while, so I had no light. Luckily I had my flashlight that does not need batteries (thank you Heather!). Yeah, so I packed all night until about 2 in the morning and then went to bed. It took a bit to fall asleep because I was thinking about my new city. The alarm went off at 2:40 am so I could shower and make breakfast before heading to the train - yeah, I was sleepy. It was a morning train with a window to the rising sun, so we did not sleep on the train. But I get here and its all good. We get in the new place, and we ate breakfast at a cool cafe. It was my companion and one other missionarie's one-year-on-the-mission day, so we had plove (rice with spices) and put a candle in it for the one-year mark. I later went back to the apartment and crashed for 1 hour, then got up to do a few things in town. I have meet a few of our investigators and 3 of our investigators have baptismal dates and they are dang cool. One guy named Andrea, he is in his 30's, and one named Lubamir and he is 21. They are both really cool guys. The Branch here is cool. Tons of them speak English, more in this branch than any other I have served in. Its cool - they speak to you in Ukrainian for normal things, and then will joke in English, or if you don't understand they will say it in English.

My district is cool - Elder Kaufman is 2 transfers ahead of me and was trained by my trainer and he is the district leader. He is with Elder Horne from my last area; he is 1 transfer in the country. And then the sisters - there is Sister Mills, she is 2 transfers in the country after I came and she is with Sister Bloomquist (not sure how to spell in English) and she is from Elder Horne's group. My companion is from the same group as Elder Mills, 2 transfers after me, so its a fun district.

My English class is way fun, and its nice to teach English with someone else. Doing them solo was hard in Ivano - 30 Min's to plan English can be hard.

But anyhow, I am done for now. I will talk to you next week. Hopefully I will get a computer with a USB port so you can see a little about the stuff going on here - it's fun!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

2008-03-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

To those that love me (or those just want to hear about me) here is some more news about what's going on in my life...

We have 2 investigators with baptismal dates and yet they are sending both me and my companion somewhere else! I am going to an area nearby called Chernivtsy (I think that's how you might spell it in English). It will be fun! My new companions name is Elder Kaufman.

Well yesterday was fun and interesting. We had a full day planned at the church with the President of the Mission, President Davis. It was cool... we set up meetings for him and helped translate for him. It was fun, and he knows an okay amount of the language, but still needed the translation. It was not bad though.

I wish I could stay in my current apartment, but going to this new city is something I have wanted to do. I have heard a lot about this city. It is not flat like this city I'm in now (Ivano-Frankivsk); it has a lot of hills from what I understand. But I think I will be okay. The work is doing well here and I hope everything will be okay when me and my companion leave Ivano.

Nothing too crazy has happened... we had a party for our English class. We watched 'Charly' in Russian. Not the best translation, but it was fun to watch. We ate pizza and we played baseball in our suits and managed to not get dirty. It was not planned - we did not think a lot of people would be coming. I thought they might, but my comp thought not enough to get a game on, but it was all good. I hit a few home runs and it was fun.

We have changed the way we work a bit, not bad at all though, just a new way of looking at things and it seems to be working.

I have taken a few pics; we have a duck and a Book of Mormon in Ukrainian; what is in the book? I know what it is, but what do you think? A pic of me having a juice box and reading the Book of Mormon in Ukrainian and my comp is in the background (Elder Lewis). Then there are 2 pics of where I live - one looking at my apartment building and one looking out from the kitchen window and in the last week the snow was nice but the sunny warm weather was nice too. My apartment is on the 2nd floor (pink thing) and the kitchen is the left window.

Well, I am off until next week! Then you will have an update of what has happened in the new city. Папа! (Bye!)

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

2008-03-20T14:33:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone! I am just saying 'hi' and 'I love you' and I hope you are all doing well!

I am doing great! This week was the first time I had to teach the whole hour in a lesson! There was a weird thing where the other Elders had a lesson to teach, but my companion and Elder Hurst of the other companionship had to be in a meeting. So the new missionary and I went to teach the lesson. The new missionary is very limited to what he could say and they had to have 2 on the lesson, so I took Elder Hurst's place and gave a lesson that was not planned. It went well though!

Man, I do not like pigeons! The other day I saw 2 kids dropping food and having like 50 pigeons follow them down the road. It was really cool. I've never seen them do this before... I hope they led them to a trap or something! :) And it has been weird weather this week... for example today its snowing and I see the sun out.

I wish I had more time, but I don't. Next week I will work harder to give you guys a better message!

UPDATE -- Cody didn't take that picture...I googled it just to jazz up the entry...sorry! :) ~Heather

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

2008-03-12T08:56:00.000-07:00

Well, like always I am rushed. We have an investigator that needs to be met within 20 mins and so I have but a few minutes to tell you about my week.

We had an exchange and I went with the 3 week old missionary to a small city 3 hour south. It was hard for him and I didn't translate while we were there,but he did understand a lot of what was said. It was cool... the family down there is one of the strongest in this area but they just live so far away, so we held a sacrament down there. It was lots of fun and luckily it was done in Ukrainian. It was almost done in Russian, but i said something because Russian is hard for me and almost impossible to the new missionary. I took a pic of him sleeping on the bus on the way there, and one of him at the bus station not really knowing what was going on. :) It was tons of fun.

We had a Zone Conference that was great. We spoke about 80% in Russian and Ukrainian (mostly Ukrainian) and it was lots of fun. I took a pic of the way we went there. Sorry its so blurry, but the bus was running late and we had to rush and we have bumpy roads.

And I have a pic of my companion and I at our investigator's house. He has a solid baptismal date for the 22nd of March (or 22ого березня). He is a great guy that found us at a perfect time. More things have happened this week, but maybe you will have to hear about them another way...I am out of time!

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

2008-03-12T08:37:00.001-07:00

I found out that I am a Jedi today...I will show you in a pic. I think it's cool and even though I am a Jedi, I still get burned when baking in the kitchen. :) I think the Branch President's kids are cute... Slavic, the older one and Lubamir, the younger one. Those are my pics for the week.

But anyhow I am doing well. I have found that I love waking up early! I wake up 30 mins earlier then normal and I just feel so energized. I get extra things done around the apartment and I get a wonderful workout. I am now seeing the fruit of my workouts.. how is that not cool? Or in Ukrainian... yak ne krutee?

Well this week will be a good one - I have Zone Conference this week, so I will have a wonderful time I know it. If you want to know about my language, this has been my best month so far. I have learned a lot, memorized scriptures, and other things. I've had my most effective studies and I think it's partly due to getting up early. I am more alert in the morning.

I would like to say more this week, but my email has been tripping out on me and I am losing my emails. I will do more next week. I love you all! Until next week...I will have a better update.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

2008-02-27T07:52:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-20T09:02:00.001-08:00

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

2008-02-20T08:42:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-06T10:24:00.000-08:00

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!

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

2008-01-30T19:18:00.000-08:00

Hello friends and family! Well, I will start with today. Yeah, great Prep. day. We ran to a place to get my hair cut, then ran to the bus station and then got on a bus for one hour to some random village (or small town you could say), but on the ride we were jam packed. Some dude had a dog on the bus and it got car sick and blew chunks on my leg and shoe and Elder Palsky's Bennie (little hat). Whatever! Then we got there, had lunch and played a game of Risk. It was great, but we don't have a ton of time today. We should have stayed in town, but it was fun and I got a pic of the dog and stuff.

Well, we are working dang hard. We have a investigator we are working with. He is changing every day, but he still has a few problems that we are helping him with. It will be hard, but he is a dang wonderful guy. We also have a kid we are working with, 22 years old and he is a computer programmer. I have never seen someone read a scripture the first time and break it down and understand it like he does. He explains scriptures better then most members I know, and on the first time he reads them! He understands the scriptures and he will be baptized, but only with time. He is really busy and hard to meet with.

The video I am sending today was this morning. It's a quick tour of my apartment with an unexpected surprise...we did not plan that. It's a little funny. I hope you enjoy it as much as me! I think its dang funny.

I love you all and miss you a ton! I will add one photo to another email next week of the dog event.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

2008-01-23T09:38:00.000-08:00

It's been a great week I must say. My companion is trying to wear me down I think, but its not working! I am almost done with my meds that President Davis had me start on. I am glad we have a world-renowned doctor as a Mission President; he helps a lot.

Well for this last week we now have 2 baptismal commitments in our companionship! One is an architect that designed the building which he lives in. It's dang cool. We had this weird drunk man follow us after a contact and so we started going faster and he started running after us! He wanted to go as fast as us. Really weird. It was funny though. We have a few other people we are trying to work with. They are moving in the right direction. It's so much fun. I got to meet this guy from New York this week. He is Ukrainian, but he lives in New York and speaks almost perfect English without an accent. Right now he lives in Lvivok.

This was weird - we were contacting people on the street and this old man needed some help with some stuff he had, so my companion offered our help. I started to pull his stuff for him, but right as I do that, he pulls this huge thing of metal off of a pay phone and puts it with the stuff I am dragging! But I did not know how to say, "Hey, I cant help you steal stuff," so I helped him a lil bit longer and was like, "Ok, we are really busy." Yeah, that was weird.

The weather here has been bizarre. It was -14c then it went to +6c. That's huge! All the snow melted, but today it snowed again and its colder, so that was weird. I hope it stays around -5c. That's not so bad (about 24F).

Other then that, not too much going on. I am sending a pic of preparation day last week playing the Russian version of Risk and a video at this PC cafe today (very brief).

I love you all!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

2008-01-21T14:21:00.000-08:00

Well, I am short on time, but let me tell you about my week. It is a bit crazy. I have been all over the place, like Kiev, on a few trains, in Ivano, in a nearby celo and in L'viv for Zone Conference. ZC was great. We talked about a few subjects; one was baptism. I am really feeling good about it. We have 1 new baptismal commitment since I got here and we have 2 more planned. I think we could get 4 commitments with all the people we have! It will be hard, but it's something I know can be done. My new companion is wonderful. He is the most obedient companion I have ever had. It's hard to keep up with him. It's really very hard while I am sick, but I am getting better fast. I am short on time. I wanted to upload a video, but it was barely too big, so I will do it next week. Dang. I love you all! Will talk next week.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

2008-01-21T14:09:00.000-08:00

OK, well you all know I am in Lutsk...well not anymore! I was there one transfer and they took me and Elder Woods out and sent 2 new elders there. We will be ok, but we will miss the city. He is off in a new city - its called Helmeninski (not sure how to spell that in English!). But yeah, it's cool, but I was not ready for this. I love the members and our investigators and it was just so nice there, and my companion was there 4 transfers, so I figured he would be leaving and I would be getting a new companion. But they pulled me out, so on to the new. I packed up and went and had dinner at a member's house named Sasha and then went to the train to Kiev. On the way there my luggage broke even more then it was before, so it stinks really bad now. The wheels broke and it just drags on the ground, but I will deal with it for now. Not sure if I told you all again, my fourth pair of shoes are now coming apart. They were the warmest pair I had. Now they get a bit wet. Well, I am in Kiev now and I found out I am going back to a city I've been to...who would have thought. I served in Ivano for 3 months, then served out in Lutsk for 6 weeks, then get called back out to Ivano again. I was really excited to be called back out there. It is a great city with lots of wonderful people, but it was really weird. Saturday morning we picked up tickets without names on them and then at 10:20 at night they said, "you and your companion are leaving - be ready to leave by the time your train leaves." That stunk. I used my morning study time and time after church to pack up. I don't think I ever packed so well before. Normally I take a few days and I do it slow - this was fast and in one day. But while I am in Kiev and here until tomorrow I have been with Elders Taylor and Hurst in their apartment until I go. Hurst was a missionary that came to Ukraine the transfer before I went in the MTC (like 1 and a half weeks) and Taylor is a Russian speaking Elder that came into the country the same day as me, so it has been fun. Lots of MTC stories. My new companion in Ivano will be Elder Lewis. Elder Palski is still there; he will be getting Elder Hurst. So, we will work hard and see what we can do. I love you all! I will talk next week. Goodbye!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

2008-01-01T03:48:00.000-08:00

Well, we all know that this last year was wonderful and packed full with surprises, but we have more to go! I just want to let you all know that this time of the year I miss you all so much and knowing that you are all back home supporting what I am doing makes me feel really happy. I hope that everything is going great for you all.

Let me give you a update for the week - I got my package from Heather with all types of things I have forgotten about. It's so weird when you live without something, you forget about it. It's not needed anymore. Mind you, I really loved the things that I got for Christmas and I am glad I got them, but its just interesting to me that I don't need them anymore.

The work in the area is really feeling good. We have been working hard every day, talking to people on the street and at their doors, sharing what we know to be true. Yeah, it's hard, but it works. We have been working long days with no solid investigators, but we called a man that missionaries in the past have taught and he is really cool. He is from the Czech Republic and speaks Russian, so it's hard to understand him - He's speaking a 2nd language and with a thick accent! But we have met with him and we have a new baptismal date in Lutsk! It's not for a while because he needs to visit Czech, but he is coming back and we are excited!

I said I was going to send photos this week, but I forgot my card reader. I stayed at the other Elder's apartment for the night for New Years. We watched movies in English, movies like Cars/тотчки and Ratatouille/рататуй and Greatest Game Ever Played/триумф, to name a few. We were not allowed out last night after 6pm. It was not safe in general. It's the biggest holiday of the year; many people drinking, lots of fireworks went off today. We also have to be in by 6pm tonight, so it's a laid back day. It was so interesting when I was at the apartment just chilling on the couch I felt almost like I was back home. I never just chill anymore. I never sit down for more then 30 mins anymore, just to do nothing. I only do that maybe a few times a week when I have lunch. I eat fast and then relax for a few mins and head out again. Missionary life - I would never trade it for anything!

Well, I love you all! I will talk next week. Bye for now.

English - bye! Ukrainian - папа=papa! Russian - пoка=paka!

Tuesday, December 25th, 2007

2007-12-25T14:06:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a great Christmas!

Wow, I am a dork today, so you don't get photos, even though I took them today. I used up most of my time here today trying to get my usb port to work. I can't because it's lame so you will get photos and more info next week. I will try harder to make sure you get good pics and news from this side of the world.

The only thing that stays the same is the weather - it just keeps getting colder! It's getting as low as -8c. I have seen it get up to about -4 at the "hottest" part of the day though. I loved talking to my mom and brothers yesterday! I hope that you all know that I miss you so much right now. All I think about is the Season and family and friends getting together for parties and food and fun and lots of DRIVING. I miss driving so much! But anyway, sorry I don't have much to say and have no pics. Wait until next week please and I will give you a better update and this week's 2 pics that i was going to send. They are dang good! Ok, I love you all! I will talk to you next week!

Merry Christmas!

Love, Elder Hokanson

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007

2007-12-19T03:47:00.000-08:00

Hello my American friends!

I am so glad this city has better English studies; nobody says that silly phrase here. Thank goodness.

Well this week has been lots of fun. The weather has been nice; chilly, about -1.5C outside. I love it! We are tracting and contacting every day. There are wonderful people here, but we get dogged most days (that means we get "stood up" a lot). We are trying though!

The only cool thing that happened this week was the fact that after I did Internet last week we were out on the street and a car swerves to the right and hits some puddles and splashed us from head to toe with dirty slush from the street. Yeah, it was dang funny! I was like, "What the heck? This sucks!" We did not take photos...I know, it would have been great, but I looked at my comp. and started laughing because it was so dang funny. We cleaned up ok and were off to work again. My comp. has the most slippery shoes on the earth I think; he slips so often, right on his back. Happens all the time!

Photos this week -1) my companion brushing his teeth today, 2) two guys in costumes (weird!), 3) the castle in Lutsk, 4) me on Santa's lap (aka my mission president), 5) me sliding on the ice in my pros, and 6) me this morning pointing at where we live on the map of Lutsk. Hope you like them!

I'm keeping it short today. I get a phone call next week...yay!!!

Love, Elder Hokanson

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

2007-12-14T02:49:00.000-08:00

This week was great! I am loving it here in Lutsk with Elder Woods!

The weather turned again...from cold to a bit too hot back to snow and ice again. I would rather have a slippery walk then a wet and dirty walk. It's so much nicer and I would rather have cold weather and bundle up then be too warm and have to shed layers to feel good. And thanks to Uncle Dave and Aunt Terri's Christmas money I have a nice new coat that keeps me really warm!

Well this was really fun - I got to go to Lviv/Львів for Zone Conference again. It focused on the BoM (Book of Mormon) a lot. We almost all noticed that we chose Bible scriptures for topics that the BoM has plenty of. We can use both the Bible and the BoM for these topics, but it is better if we use the BoM sometimes; the scriptures are easier to apply. There are sometimes more and when people read from the BoM that's when they realize that it's true and they make the change in their life. It's great. I got the chance to stay the night in Lviv at the Zone Leader's apartment. The APs (Assistants to the President) stayed there too and the other companionship from my district stayed there overnight too. It was lots of fun and even though I slept on the floor, it was a lot better then the bed I have right now. It is a nightmare - too small. I feel every spring in that bed, but the bed is better then the floor at my place. I might be moving apartments somewhat soon. I hope I can but anyway, I am over my time as usual.

Photos this week - we have Tam Tams...its like Wal Mart. 1) One with no snow while they burn their trash on the side, and 2) one today when it was snowing. 3) "Best Buy" in Lutsk (That spells Best Buy) - not real of course. 4) Some of my English class here with my companion Elder Woods, 5) then me this morning being Christmas trunky. :)

Ok, that's all for this week! I love you! Talk to you next week!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

2007-12-05T02:19:00.000-08:00

HELLO EVERYONE!!

I am in Lutsk, in Western Ukraine. It's a wonderfull place were it's cold, muddy and people are nice. I think that in this city I have met more people that speak english then anywhere else. I met one person that that did not have an accent at all. I love it here so far. This is really great. In this city I have a district of 4; its me, my 2 companions from the mtc, and the only ukrainian speaker from our group that came together from the MTC. Its really cool. My companion is Elder Woods from Utah, and the other companionship is Elder Perry from Utah and he is with Elder Bostwick from Idaho. I live in a kind of crappy apartment - like really bad. Its by far the worst yet. I will send pics and give you details later, but yeah, its bad. Its on the 8th floor and at least it has a lift. This is what I wanted the most though - to be with my original district from the MTC. We are going to rock it up so hard!

The pics this week are; 1) me in Ivano at a touristy map, 2) a tank in Kiev. 3) statue of big mama (a missionary nick-named statue) :) 4) a few cool statues, and 5) the peace tanks. lol! I like them, so I sent them.

But I am low on time and I will talk next week, so I love you all! Bye!

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

2007-11-28T05:10:00.000-08:00

On one of my many train rides...jammed up in the luggage area.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

2007-11-28T04:48:00.000-08:00

Let's talk about my adventure yesterday! Well you see, we had train tickets coming in to be delivered to us on a train. We had no idea where the train was going, just that it would be in Ivano at 6:40am. Ok, so we set alarms for 5:30 so we could get there on time. Yeah...we hit snooze. Well my comp did, then he set another alarm and said we would take a taxi to get there. Ok yeah, his alarm went off, but he did not get up...great! So I am in bed, my I-Pod is set to go off at 6:25am with church music, it starts singing, I have a thought, "You're not going to make it!" I jump out of bed and said, "ELDER, WHAT TIME IS IT!?!" I look at the clock, its 6:25. We rush getting dressed, we call 3 taxi companies...they will take a long time to get to us. They say 10-15 mins, it snowed a lot last night they said. I get a thought, "Put on your yaktrax so you don’t slip in the ice and snow," but then I think I don’t have time. Bad idea. Well, the phone rings, we are almost ready, they say a taxi is pulling up, so we take off. My comp started running down the stairwell and I am locking all 3 locks. I run down and I barely see my comp, he is running to find the taxi. I take off and as I see him around the corner there is a lot of ice and snow on the ground. Yeah, I slip slide about 6 feet on the ground. It hurt! Then I got up, start running and my stuff fell out of my pocket, some documents and stuff, nothing too important, but I didn't notice, so I run to the taxi, get in, there is ice all over the city. We are rushing to the train station and our driver is sliding around corners and stuff...fun!! Finally we get to the train station, my comp jumps out of the taxi, almost slips and falls on his face (cobblestone is not fun when its icy), so now I have to pay the driver. I cant see my comp, but I know where he is going. On the intercom they annouce that due to the snow the train is late! Yeah, 2 mins, big deal. So we see the train pulling in, we are running to the train car with the person that has our tickets (you're not allowed to send stuff on trains, but its one of the best ways to send things in Ukraine). We find the person, grab the tickets and then start our walk home. Yeah, in my slip and fall I lost some things in my pockets, but I was able to get most of it, and my pants now have a quarter sized hole in the left leg. You see a sidewalk here is not always smooth, but bumpy and rocky in some areas, so yeah my leg is sore and my pants have a hole. I lost a few things, but we saw a few cool things on the way.

I am going into Kiev today and leaving in 5 hours or so and will be on a 12 hour train ride. I love my train rides. I'm getting transferred...I have no idea where I am going. I hope they send me to Lutsk. The other 2 elders from my MTC District are there and that would be really cool. I was told I am staying out West, so the only places I could be going are Lutsk, Hrivna, Lviv, and Chernivtsi. Those are the only cities that have elders moving out west that I know about.

I was up until about 4am last night packing my stuff. I did not get to start until last night. It's all ready to go. All I can think about right now is that I am going to a new area, getting a new comp, and getting a new branch, but it can't get harder than here in Ivano...it's hard here for many reasons.

Christmas is coming up soon! I am missing Christmas dinner, but I get a phone call next month! I will have to send info from my next area.

Pics this week - walking in the snow with 2 investigators (my comp and one of the sisters), one pic looks like I am mad...it was just after the morning adventure, we were walking home because we did not want another taxi (I mean my comp did make us late!), a thing that they plow the streets and then sweep them with - is weird - there's a small casino behind it, a pic of the place where I fell and lost my stuff and then got back up and ran to the taxi (the foot prints through the snow just to the left of the tree going straight are when I was running), the next is the class in the selo where I teach English to kids once every 2 weeks. Lots of really cool kids there.

So, that’s it for today. I love you all and talk to you next week with a update of where I am and who I am with!

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

2007-11-26T09:05:00.000-08:00

This last week was crazy, but lots of cool stuff, and sad, but it will all be ok. We have a District with one senior couple, one set of elders and 2 sets of sisters. Well, one sister, a great sister from Odessa serving a mini-mission, she started having problems walking. We took her to the hospital, but they were no help. We had to go to another to get X-rays. This should have taken hours, but we had a friend from English there that is from India that happens to be a student there. He helped us get things done very quickly. People were waiting there for hours and we come up, get right in the room, get our stuff done, and walk out in front of them. He is our hero, a really good guy. He speaks British English; its not American English, but he is still cool!! Well on the X-rays they found a dark spot, but it was such low quality it was not much help. So me and my companion on Wed. last week got on a train with Sister Nina and her companion and took her to ODESSA!!!! A place Ukrainian speakers never go unless you are an AP and there we helped sister Nina a lot. It was an 18 hour train ride there and we had 6 hours there during the day. We did a few things that will drive other elders nuts cuz they will never get the chance. We saw the Black Sea, saw 7K, and the best Opera House in Ukraine. Then we had Thanksgiving Dinner and ran for 25 mins to get on our train (with full bellies it was not good!). Then we had another 18 hour long train ride back to Ivano Frankivsk. While we were on our train ride back they did new tests on Sister Nina and she has cancer or a tumor - not 100%. But she is way cool member, for 15 years. She was one of the first in Ukraine to become a member of the church and she has been to the temple. I am happy she had the opportunity to serve a mini-mission and that I was able to serve with her and serve her as well.

I wish I had more time to talk but I am running out of time. I miss you all and will talk more on Wed. Bye!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

2007-11-14T10:13:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to say that this has been a wonderful week, full of ups and downs of course. I will not go into detail about most things and won't hit most topics but I will share with you a moment of my life in Ukraine.

Let me tell you about my investigators; we have one woman named Natalka. She has felt the spirit more then any of the people I have taught, and she knows that she loves the things we have taught her. She knows they are right and true, but when we leave, the spirit leaves with us. She is hard to meet with so we did not see her for a while. We came back and she said she can't read from the Book of Mormon because it's a sin, because she is Russian Orthodox. So we talked to her and asked her to remember what we have read, then we testified and shared more scriptures and she felt the spirit even stronger. She did not want to respond to it. We could see it. We were lead to bear our testimonies. I bore testimony that I have never said before in perfect Ukrainian Grammar, and then after I finished, an unanswered question that she had about what we have been talking about came out and through study that morning we had the perfect answer because it was still fresh in our minds. She is wonderful and is going through hard times, but we are trying to help her with whatever we can.

We have a young man the same age as me that we just started meeting with. His name is Andrei and he is so cool. We have a baptismal date for him next month and we are excited to teach him because he has high standards in life and that brings a lot of questions and we are here to help him find his answers through study and prayer.

We have a few African guys that are studying to become doctors that we are teaching. It is interesting because they are from Sudan and it is a Muslim country and we shouldn't baptise them, but they have accepted Christ as their Savior. If they go home in the wrong city they will be murdered. But because of the fact that they have already become Christian we can baptise them. One of them is named Yosuf and he is great. He understands very little Ukrainian, but he does understand English and Arabic, so we teach him in English. We downloaded the conference talks in Arabic and he loved it. We have set a baptismal date and he is progressing. He has brought friends to be taught by us and they are all wonderful. He brought one that does not understand English well, almost not at all. We started and he said something and Yosuf translated it into English for us. He said he is here to start the spiritualization process.

Well the next topic I don't really want to go into, so I won't. lol.

Next topic. I know that i don't yet understand the gospel as a whole, I am just now understanding that I am peeking into knowing more about it. It is incredible and i love learning about it. It is so plain and simple and yet so deep and wonderful. I understand the basics, but there is more there than what you see at first. I realize the Bible was organized by men and missing things and its not in order, but is of great importance. I have known this, but through study the teachings in it become more clear. Personal study is of great importance and companionship study too. I understand them more clearly. I am beginning to understand much more about God and how He works and how much more Christ loves us. It is deeper then we can imagine. I now understand that the Book of Mormon is the key to studying the Bible; they are supporters of each other in many ways. If you read the Book of Mormon it becomes easier to study the Bible. I don't need to go into the topic too deeply, but my testimony of the scriptures are getting deeper and stronger and I love the feeling that it brings to me.

Photos this week - my district pics, my companion fell asleep in the middle of the day as you can see by the watch (I declared him dead at 12:30 on Wed the 7th, so yeah, it's a week old), a pic of me in front of a cool statue of Ivan Franko and in front of a cool Hotel named НАДІЯ (Na-dee-ya), then one pic of my comp on the sidewalk on the way to church for a meeting.

That's all you get for now. I love you all and want to hear from you! I will talk next week. Bye!

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

2007-11-08T01:44:00.000-08:00

цекаво мені (interesting to me) but not much time to write today.

Surprise...we lost the a senior couple and gained sisters for 10 days...interesting. I have been busy fixing the Internet problems of the Hinkls in our district. They are senior missionaries and are wonderful, but we have been using a lot of our time to help them and that's what President Davis wants us to do. They are our first priority because they are helping the organization of the church in the area, so if we help them, they help us in the long run with retention.

Well, the weather this week has been fun, around 0-2C (about 32-36F). Not bad. We had our first snow of the winter and it was a teaser...it melted after a few hours. It has been a bit icy and next Monday we are looking at about -6C (about 21F) as a low with snow off and on. It sounds great to me!

I cant think of much else right now. I am in a rush this morning and have to leave as soon as I upload this last pic. I have the first snow of the season and me this morning at the Hinkl's apartment about to fix their Internet.

An interesting thing I learned this week in cooking - you can use Sprite instead of milk when making pancakes and they turn out amazing!

Video

2007-11-01T23:19:00.000-07:00

Video by my companion Elder Palsky of us jammed in a car with some strangers.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

2007-11-01T23:13:00.000-07:00

Oct 31
Well, this was crazy week. I don't want to say anything crazy, but wow. And I took for granted how the church runs back home. It's not perfect, but it works well. In Kiev it works well and here it’s a little disorganized. They took all missionaries out of leadership roles in the branches and wards and are trying to make them so they can run themselves better. I will not say any details but it's getting crazy here in Ivano Frankivsk.
ну нічого (that means "well, it's nothing", kinda like "whatever")
This week was fun. We took a huge loop in our oblast (county) and went to the farthest south city of any significance in size and then missed our marshrootka (van that goes on a route, like a bus) to the next city, so we bummed a ride with some guys. We think they stole the car and had drugs too, but we got to the city, paid them for the ride, and said bye. We will probably never see them again, but yeah, in this city we tried to meet a family that moved there from a different area but nobody was there, so waste of time. Then we tried to get home again, but we could not get a marshrootka to our city, so we grabbed the most crammed ride I have ever had. You will see a clip my comp made for me in the car. It's crazy. Then we got to the city and then had 10 Min's before the next marshrootka left for Ivano, so we were happy and made it to town 30 Min's before our English Class started. We were so happy about that. It would have been lame if the only 2 Americans teaching English did not show up. But other then that not too much has happened. Hope you enjoy the pics from yesterday's travels.The two guys are the guys that might have stolen a car and had drugs, a kid from the family that we visited in the far city, a village, and then a pic with my comp and me with my camera out the window. Other then that I should be good for pics so I will talk next week. I love you all! Bye!

Wednesday, October 26, 2007

2007-11-01T23:12:00.000-07:00

Oct 26
Well let’s see...It's been a crazy week. Lots of finding, contacting, tracting, and its been fun with the new comp. I was sure that we would not get along too well, but it’s not a bad start. And he can cook, so I am no longer the only one cooking! In fact he does it more then me now. It's great - I make borscht and it lasts 3-4 days and he cooks almost every other thing. :) It's nice. We got to leave our obalist (county) from Ivano Frankivsk to Ternopal and to a crazy celo (village). I hope I can get these pics off so you can see a lil bit of it. It was a fun trip, that's for sure. We left at 6am and got back in town at 9pm and got to the apartment at 9:25. It was a full day. We did get permission; so no we did not blatantly disobey the rules. It was raining almost the whole day but the reason we went out was my companion has ancestors that are Ukrainian and Polish, but lived in Ukraine and that was a celo where they lived. There are 5 celos with the same name by the way...We had to find maps from the early 1900s and use rivers on the old maps and the new maps to figure out where it was and then how to get there and back. That was fun. We went to the Mayor's office and talked to him and they gave us info. We had a lesson with him and 6 office staff there and 17 contacts in that celo. We do not have authorization to be there or preach, but each person talked to us and you could go into a lesson if they ask about us. It was great. We went to the cemetery there and we were looking for names. We looked for hours and no luck. Then it started to rain and it was muddy from the last few days of rain and so we left. On our way out we happened to find one grave with the right name! His family tree does not have the dates but this gravesite has the right dates and name! Crazy! Then we went back to the mayor and he gave us more info about where we could find more info about his family. With the border changes and wars and fires most records are gone. The ones that are still around are in another city, so next week we might have to postpone email again.
Other then that I loved Aunt Lana and Uncle George's package! I had forgot what chunky peanut butter was like! It's wonderful! I used half of it in a week. :) The root beer I used the first day in the office with 2 companions of mine and one good friend that was going home. It was great! Missionaries love root beer! You cant get it here you know. Don't send it to me though...I don't need it here and it costs a lot to send. So I will talk to you later next week, maybe a day late. We need permission to go to the other city. We are not registered there. I love you all! Until next week!я вас люблю допобаченя = I you love see you later, or actually I love you (plural) and see you later Now I am sending pics of a school were we teach English to kids, the baptism I had, the celo I went to when I got to ride on a trailer a horse was pulling, when we went into a fortress from the 1500s, a bus stop in a closer celo to me, a pic of me in a park, on my old comps last day in Ivano wasting time in an area that is under construction, a salad I made - my comps hand is forming what's called a fig and is kind of like the finger but it means nothing...even members will do it in the church (it's more funny then anything), and a pic of borscht that I made.

Wednesday, October 11, 2007

2007-11-01T23:09:00.000-07:00

Oct 11
Well, it's a crazy week! My companion is leaving and I get to take two 12-hour train rides. I will leave Sunday then get to Kiev Monday, say goodbye to my companion, get a new one, then leave Kiev Monday and get back here to Ivano Frankivsk Tuesday. Sounds like fun...I will have a new companion though - sweet - and be crammed in a train car with 3 other guys with 3 sets of luggage. It will be somewhat cramped but I think it will be very fun. So...things that are new - I have taken pics on how to prepare borscht, but have not had the time to send them yet. But you will all learn how to make it and see what mine looks like. :) I went to an egg museum in a town I had never been to. That was interesting. They have a skill of painting eggs that's really interesting how they do it, but then we went out to eat and that was it. It was fun to go once that's for sure. If I had more time and could see the city it would have been cool. It's not a small town but the church is not open there yet. We need to help the church grow so we can be in all cities here. It's great to see the church in its form here...it is still young and it's growing fast. This week was hectic - so much going on and we did not know what was going on most of the time, so we did not get too much done...Just what other people wanted, so not much time for investigators. But we do have 4 baptismal dates for Saturday. Can't wait to see what it will be like. The only thing I don't like is the man that asked me to baptize him will be leaving for Tokyo soon after baptism and who knows when I will see him next, or if ever. It's getting colder here and I almost need a sweater every day. But hey, I want it to get cold, it's just now nobody will see my cool ties anymore. :) Sorry, I am out of time. I will talk to you all later. I love you!
-Elder Hokanson
Pic is of me on 10-11-2007 wearing my cool pink/brown $1 tie! :)

2007-11-01T23:08:00.002-07:00

Oct 3
Nothing new really...
Well let’s see...we had sports day and it was crazy. We played soccer and baseball and it was weird - there were spider webs in the air, floating everywhere. They have a name for it - it’s like great-grandmother summer. It’s like the gray hair, but it means like the summer is getting old. It's weird. In the area there are 4 baptismal commitments with 2 companionships here. We have one of them - close to having 2, but not yet. My companion is dying soon (ending his mission). In 2 weeks, about 14 days, he will be on a plane to the USA. He is starting to show trunkiness...not a bad thing to see, but it's funny. Oh and Petro/Peter asked me to baptism him! Other then that we are losing the couple missionaries, the Anderson's, but we are gaining the Lees for a few months, and the Higgles for I don't know how long. And we are getting 2 new missionaries out here to replace one of the sisters and my companion. I hear rumors of who, but I don't know and to me it is all the same. It does not matter who it is. It will be a hard working missionary and that's all that matters. So not much new this week. I might try to send a photo or 2 soon, so lookout, it might be coming.
Love, Elder Hokanson

2007-11-01T23:08:00.001-07:00

Sep 26
Well, lets see, this week - not too much going on. I had another round of Zone Conferences and a Western Ukraine Conference with the Branches in Western Ukraine. Both conferences were in Lviv. We took a train to Lviv. It left at 12:30 am & got there at about 8:10 am. We did not sleep well and the coupets are way too small. Then we grabbed an express marshrootka (micro bus) from Lviv to Ivano-Frankivsk that took 2 hours. We got home at about 9:30 pm, then the next day we grabbed a marshrootka to Lviv again at about 5:30 am and got there at about 8am. Then we left later at about 3pm and got home at about 6pm and we were beat. The next day we went to a selo (village) and dug up potatoes for a member's mom. That's hard work. The Conference was great though...there was an Area Seventy from Moskva (Moscow Russia)...not sure on English spelling anymore. Ukrainian is spelled the same way it sounds. English is hard now. We have a baptism date with an investigator. He has a few things we need to work on, but he will be ready for baptism on the 13th. The sister missionaries in our area have 2 people on date for the 13th. One looks like she will be baptized for sure, the other is a maybe. I don't know her though, so who knows. Other then that it has been really really foggy in the mornings. I cant even see the other apartment buildings that are maybe 20 yards from ours, and at night every selo/village around us is burning everything that they don't need after the harvest and it's just full of smoke everywhere and we smell like smoke every evening. It is thick like fog. Other then that I don't have much news so I will talk to you next week! I love you all!
-Elder Hokanson

2007-11-01T23:07:00.001-07:00

Sep 19
Not too much to say this week but we are busy all over the place. We had almost no time to contact here. We have activities out the wazoo! We had 2 plays that I was in and we did service in a selo/village. I dug up potatoes and picked grapes. It was fun! I got really dirty. Then yesterday I went out to a selo in the Carpathian Mountains and went to a river. It was really cool - barley over an hour outside of Ivano. I got a spoon for tea, a wooden spoon, and some homemade socks for the winter. They are really warm. I won't need them for a while though, although it is getting cold and its been raining almost every day. It's crazy here - we have about 6-8 people that are friends to the missionaries. They have our standards and come to activities, but don't take the lessons. Some of them know the church is true, but they don't want to take the lessons. We had a guy that's been coming to church for about 3 years, but never wanted to give up smoking or tea, and now he wants to change and become ready for baptism. It's cool! And there is a young man that is making changes in his life, reading the scriptures and praying. He will be able to be baptized in maybe 3-4 weeks. Well I went off and made my Borscht (Ukrainian soup). It takes 2-3 hours to make and it is better then most of the borscht I have had when I eat out or when I eat at people's houses. It's the first time I made it too. I am really happy about it. I did learn from a person that made the best I had ever had so it had to be somewhat good. :) My companion will be making some today using my notes on making borscht. He will be making it while we study - it's not hard, just lots of sitting around waiting when you make borscht. Normal activities we have here during the week in this area are teaching English 2 times a week (Tue/Thur), Friday line dancing, and Saturday is sports day. We teach them American sports like football Americanski, baseball, and stuff like that. They are clueless on how to play it. They have just never seen it in their life. We have 2 days planned for contacting in center Ivano with members. That's a normal week, but then I had the 2 plays and service planned - it's crazy! And with 3 hours of study a day and then trying to contact in spare time and having lessons...that's how our days are spent - no time to breathe. So that's about all I've got for you now! I love you all! Talk to you next week!

2007-11-01T23:06:00.001-07:00

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!!!

2007-11-01T23:01:00.000-07:00

Sept 5
I am so sad!!!! I'm getting transferred tomorrow (Thursday)! I have no idea where I am going or who my companion will be. I find out at 9am tomorrow. I'm sad to leave this awesome area and district (see picture).Things I forgot to tell you while I was in Brovary - I spent some time in a celo/village working in the garden. I almost chopped a good apple tree down; it was not my fault. I also hit myself in the leg with a hatchet...don't worry it was about 2 weeks ago and it was about a 2 cm big cut...not bad right? I took a shower in the celo at a member’s dacha/summer house. The shower was outside and there were 7 spiders in there and 2 had bodies as big as dimes! Well as you can see I am really sad. I am in a city I love and I am being moved to a new city that I have never been to. TRANSFERS ARE LAME! But anyway we have 3 investigators that are close to baptism. One will be probably be next week and I wont be there. A minimum 2 more in the next 1-3 months, maybe more. One of the investigators, his parents seem interested to learn more. We have 2 new investigators now and both speak English. One speaks like a champ - he formally worked as a programmer for the UN. TRANSFERS ARE LAME! As most of you have seen I don't like crying in church or really anywhere, but on Sunday I was asked to share my testimony. My companion had told the 1st counselor I was leaving so I was almost forced to. OK, so I get up there and say, "Good day brothers and sisters." It's a good start, right? Then I feel the water works starting. I say "to me this is difficult" (that's how you say it - its worded right). Then I am in tears and I gave my testimony in tears. It was simple but from the heart, and I made some of the members cry. It was sad. After my testimony I was in tears for 15 mins. I was a crybaby, I swear! I love this branch so much! I don't want to go anywhere! I want to stay here the rest of my mission. After sacrament meeting almost all the members came up to me and said thank you for serving on a mission in Brovary. I was told I was great with kids and that they knew I loved them and they told me I am humble and showing my humility was a good example, but I don't think they were telling the truth. I don't think I am humble - I am still prideful. FOOD news - kind of good.
I learned how to make Ukrainian bread and Ukrainian Borscht! Until next week! Love, Elder Hokanson

2007-11-01T22:55:00.000-07:00

Aug 29
Well to start off not too much going on right now. We might not have a baptism on Sunday - we need to ask the girl what she wants. We wont be able to announce the baptism till Saturday/Sunday when she is interviewed and that will be Saturday and her date is set for Sunday. We will see what she wants. I might get transferred next week. I hope I stay here with my companion a 3rd transfer. I am crossing my fingers. Brovary is on fire right now. Other then that we have one young man that wants to be baptized but his mom said only when he is 18. But we have really good feelings about her and she is friends with a member and we are going to plan to have the member in her house for every lesson. We think she could accept the gospel in a matter of 2-3 months, maybe faster. We have other people we are working with that could have dates in a matter of weeks. Food news - the member that is cooking for us here makes dang good food and I am expanding in my cooking abilities. I even surprise myself with what I can bust out with using what’s available to me at the time. Man, and its sad to say but I very much enjoy a drink called kvass. It’s a fermented bread drink. Don’t worry, it is not breaking the Word of Wisdom. There is almost never alcohol in it and if there is it’s almost never more then 00.5%. I am told its not breaking the WOW. Some of its good and some of it is crappy, but I am learning how to make it, so don’t worry, you will all have a chance to try the smachno (tasty) drink. A member made me 10 liters of kvass. It’s not bad. But not much more is going on right now and I am out of time. I love you all and will catch you next week!

2007-11-01T22:31:00.000-07:00

Aug 22

Well a hot temp all week of 37 degrees. 37x1.8+32=how hot it is, plus tons of humidity.Work is going well - we had 1 baptized on Sunday. Her daughter will be baptized on the 2nd next month. We are meeting with one young man’s parents on Sunday to get permission for baptism and one other girl that’s soon ready to commit to be baptized, so we just had one and we have maybe 3 more coming up. Looks good to me, mainly because they are all member referrals.Food news - we have a member cooking for us. We are trying to help her out with money. So she prepares good food better then us and for less money. She has more money, it gives her more to do, gets her out of the house and she likes us missionaries more. Win Win! Service in Brovary hit a new level of difficulty. We helped a member move into the area from Kiev and it’s a new place so it does not have an elevator, and they lived on the 10th floor so they had us split about 1 or 2 on every 3rd floor and passing things up for 3 HOURS! Yeah, I was dripping like crazy that day. We had so much going on we had to take 4 showers, we did not have time to study, and we were almost late to 2 appointments, but we had a member offer to us a ride to one of them and we met the other young man we were meeting on the road to the place where we were meeting him, so times worked out perfectly. But anyway, I am off. Talk to you next week. Love you all. PS - I got mom’s packages last Wed. and I think the other one is in Kiev but I can’t go in to get it.

2007-11-01T21:53:00.000-07:00

Aug 15
Well to start off I am doing ok I am sick with a sinus infection and I am on antibiotics. I feel like crap but other then that I am great. We have a baptism this week (Valya). She is doing well she just got a new job she will be able to get her kids back soon. She could not afford them before now she can. she is still having trials now but she is getting through them like a champ right now. Next cool investigator, Kolya, he is one sharp kid. 14 years old, has had 5 lessons from us & a member. One of his friend’s mom knows his family and she said that the family is not against the church or baptism and this young man said I WANT TO BE BAPTIZED IN THIS CHURCH so we will be meeting with his parents soon. One funny thing is in our English class there has been a “snake” (our slang for the girls who try to tempt the elders) and she is out to snag my companion. She does this weird thing with her eyes to him and says his name funny and calls him a bad boy. I have been doing some friendly harassing with my companion to get a laugh out of him, like doing the thing with my eyes and repeating to him things she says. It is kind of funny. Other then that, no new news. It’s been raining and I love the rain! I am off…talk to you next week.

2007-11-01T21:42:00.002-07:00

Aug 8
Well not too much going down. Not bad news, but we pushed our baptism date back one week because a few members think she drinks, but we have been with her more often then them and she never smells of alcohol and we have never seen it, but we are working with her and she is still good to go so we are happy. About me - I still speak really, really bad. It takes me a while to get out what I want to say. My vocab is not very good, but what I know how to say I do all right. I was told by a native, an investigator even, that I spoke without an accent, so I am happy about that cuz I know people that speak better then me that been here over a year or more that can’t seem to even say the name ‘Jesus Christ’ correct. It’s not humble of me to bring it up, but it pumped me up a lil bit cuz I do work on proper pronunciation. Zone Conference went down. It was fun as usual. President Paul of the 70 was there. He is from Germany. It was really cool, good talks, and after the talks he randomly interviewed 6 elders/sisters from the zone conference and one of them was me. That was fun. I talked to Sister Davis, the President’s wife, about a lot of stuff and my shoes and I am wearing these shoes down fast too. Let’s see just how long they last. Anyways, not too much going on out here. It has been really hot and it just started raining today, really coming down. I love being in the rain, it’s very pleasing to me. Well, I love you all and I will catch you next week!

2007-11-01T21:42:00.001-07:00

Aug 1
Well let’s see the power went out here so all that I had down is gone and I have to start over, so yeah. My shoes - I got new ones. I had a large selection of one whole pair of shoes and it’s about half a centimeter to small so that’s ok for now. I can’t get into detail like I had due to the lack of time but whatever. The work is moving forward mainly with our current referrals. All of the investigators that were missionary -found don’t seem to go anywhere! We still have to try though. I went on exchanges with my ZL this week. He is a cool guy from Apple Valley, CA and he was in my last zone. Now he is my zone leader and I don’t want that calling or DL or even AP. I would rather be a normal missionary any day of the week. I am just happy that I am here. Our best investigator will be getting a interview next week for baptism! Man, this is bad I am almost out of time I need to do the pres email so I will talk next week!

2007-11-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

July 25
Well not too much to say. Remember Sasha/Cаша from my first area? Well I just found out on Monday he was baptized! It’s so awesome! His friend from the ward Vladimir did not baptize him he did not show up, but Sasha is cool and my old companion baptized him - so sweet!!And in my area our investigator pool got small because of vacations, but we did some finding and boosted it a lil bit but our investigator валiя/valya (its hard to spell in English to me but anyway) she has read the BoM 2 times and she has a baptism date for the 11th. When we teach her she has no questions. We wonder, “why?” right? Well, when we leave she uses her friends Russian index of the BoM and gospel principals and the teachings of the prophets to find references to what we teach. Not only that, she does all the homework and then some of what we give her, so when we ask her about her homework, it’s like wow! She has all of it done and understands it better then from what we gave her! The average convert has only read about 7 chapters in the BoM before baptism this is amazingMy back is better for the most part so I stopped taking the pain meds 3 times a day. It was not pleasing to me to take that much. I will be buying my shoes today. Yeah you should see them now - they don’t look so bad but all the padding in my right shoe in the heel is gone. Don’t ask me how that happened. It’s interesting to me the sole is wore down where the ball of my foot is so there is a hole now and the heel has about 1/2 cm before it has a hole and the thread is still holding the shoe together somehow but if you look at my shoes they look fine from far away, but not up close, so its time to buy new ones. I hear the store in the mall has ECCOs on sale so I will take a look. I will be in center Kiev after all.And yes I will be in this area again I am not getting transferred this week! WOOT!!!I love you! I will talk to you all later!

2007-11-01T21:21:00.000-07:00

July 18
Well let’s see I am happy! Our newest investigator has read the BoM once before our 2nd meeting and started again. She is golden! But it sucks right now, almost all the members that are cool and the investigators are down at the Black Sea for vacation for like 2 weeks.Health topic - I tweaked my back working out one day and what it is doing is my muscles in my back in my mid upper right side under my shoulder blade are tense and causing my bones to move in a not so normal way sometimes over nerves causing pain, but I am taking meds and working out in such a way to make it better. It should be getting better in the next week or so, I just cant sit or lay in the same position for too long without it hurting, but I am taking 2400mg of painkillers that Sister Miller our med sestra (sister) said to take. It’s been like that for 2 weeks – you know me and not going to the doctor. I should be slapped I know. Other then that nothing is going on. One of the members came back from the USA and she is cool. She feeds us and lets us use her washer for our socks and stuff she is endowed so its mozhna –that means allowed. Mozhna does not have a direct translation. Heather knows, its same in Russian, but anyhow, I will talk next week! Bye everyone!

2007-11-01T21:19:00.000-07:00

July 11
Well let’s see EVERYBODY says they love their mission, but I have to say I LOVE MY MISSION! I can’t explain why, my feeling about my mission, I can’t describe it. Don’t get me wrong it’s hard. There is a lot of work to do and to be done and we can only do so much a day before we are out of time and energy, but its all worth it when you see people starting to get it and to understand the gospel and know that its true and that it makes sense and see them get excited and see them smile its wonderful/hoodoo. When you see kids that are so young rip right through the scriptures and love them it’s amazing to me. When you see a 17 year old girl teach gospel principals and be able to answer every question a investigator has and or put them in their place when they believe something false and not even in her normal language but in Ukrainian so that we the Ukrainian elders can understand better what’s going on in class. Even though my companion understands all the Russian that’s said here. I am starting to understand basic Russian. Gospel Russian is hard cuz I study Ukrainian gospel and it is a lot different some people think its the same – it’s not some. Things are totally different, like the word for peace in Ukrainian means world in Russian and word order is different too, like if you say in come to me in Ukrainian its (do menye) and it means something like (to me) kind of and in Russian its like (k menye) and it means something like (towards me) it’s hard to figure out sometimes though. Sometimes I think I know what they are saying in Russian and I am way wrong.What’s really cool here is people don’t laugh at you when you fall or hit your head they are concerned that you might be hurt and they like brush the dust off of you in the states you expect to hear laughter. I like it both ways.Drunk people update - on transport on left bank of Kiev for district meeting, on our way home we were being harassed by drunks, but no problem, we just said we are not listening to you, don’t talk to us pretty much. One guy was a lil mad but he got over it I am sure once he got off the bus.One thing I hate here is cigarettes - they are like maybe 2 greven a pack so like 40 cents a pack and everybody smokes because its so cheap and it could be 7 in the morning and people are getting drunk or getting drunk on the way to work. It’s really bad no matter what time of day it is, people are drinking somewhere in plain view but anyhow I love you and I am about out of time. I will talk next week. Bye!

2007-11-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

July 4

They had a ground breaking for the Kiev temple. I did not go - Pres Davis found out about it 4 days in advance and we were busy it was really hush hush and they started working on it already though so its way cool. So many people don’t like the church here they kept it really hush hush.I thrashed my shoes I have 2 pairs left, one is thrashed on the inside and hurts my right foot real bad so I don’t ware them I crushed the sole in it. So it dips down half a inch on one side and my last pair is almost wore all the way down on the bottom and the thread is coming undone on them as well I will have a huge hole soon. My work shoes the SFC, the ones that I got from work, I crushed the sole going down stairs with them its crazy they make me walk weird so I cant wear them it would only hurt me to use them and the ones from missionary mall I like but the tread is worn down like crazy I don’t think its good for people 250 pounds to wear them all day long on cement its like sand paper on my shoes and I would like to buy them here they have a ECCO store here in Kiev and my shoes that I had forever the ones we got when we were in Utah like a year ago I tore the soles in half. lol My companion rocks! And we sent the pics from a members house taken with her camera its not mine or my comps camera and I got moms packages. I love them! Thanks so much! 2 things I don’t have are measuring spoons and multivitamins. I liked the ones I had got before they were the all day energy ones. I am out have been for a while I notice a huge difference when I take them from when I don’t. I feel way better when I take them. Its because they have a lot of v B12 in them and its what helps the body change carbs to energy and I eat tons of carbs.It just sucks that I have not got my pics on the computer yet I will get them put onto a DVD and maybe send a disk. Its not for sure they have a DVD burner here they are ghetto here. I need to find a place that can do it. I know I can do it in Kiev at a pc place, but I need to find a place to do it in Brovary. I will work on it soon I have it planned to check it out this week. I already have 10 DVD-RW to burn onto so I just need to find a place. Mom gave me stamps to so I can send it pouch but it might be a while before I get them done. At least I can get them out next week maybe.It’s really hard here. I know a ton of words and it’s so hard to form sentences but I try. I need to try harder and more often. It stinks cuz there are a ton of people that speak English - heck a few of are investigators speak English like champs, and some of our members and they only speak English. Sometimes I am dying with the language it’s so hard but I want to speak. Sometimes it just does not click in my head. I will talk next week. I’ve got some more stuff to do. I love you all!

2007-11-01T20:41:00.000-07:00

June 27

I have been waiting on the website to get up today, but it took forever and I have but a few mins to say hello so I am. I wont be sending a email to pres cuz I need to go to Kiev today for interviews and I have no time. Not too much going on. We are doing a lot of finding. I am doing about 90% of all doors to work on my language. Its still really hard I speak very badly, but I understand a lot more then I can speak. A man figged us on the way to our apartment - its like the finger but Russian/Ukrainian.But I love this little city so much I want to stay here for 2 transfers at least. The work is on fire and we almost had to change apartments and move to the ghetto, but I don’t have to now, so woot! But anyhow I love you all! Talk to you later.

The Pic is of Elder Aird and I at the Vaskevich family's house.

2007-11-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

June 20
3 WEEKS OF COLD SHOWERS! WOOT! It's so wonderful!But today after we were leaving we got hot water again so later today I will get a warm shower. I forget what its like! I was taking a shower every day cold and it's loud with sounds that I made that I cant describe :) ...but no more of that for now. Yay! The Area News- My companion slapped a girl in the face...lol! Don't worry, its ok, it was a joke, she pretty much did the same to him but she had corn starch in her hand. lol! He was white all over in his suit pants. She is an amazing member, her whole family is. We gave them like 2 kilos of strawberries -they tried not to accept but finally took them after feeding us some food. The Work News - In the last 2 weeks we had 2 baptized and 1 confirmed. The next one will be confirmed on Sunday. We still have about 7 progressing investigators - 2 need to be dunked, 2 others are a mom and daughter. The girl is elect, she is like maybe 10 and she knows church history, she knows a lot of the BoM, she reads a lot and she is like 10! She comes to all church activities, but her dad is protiv (or against the church) and her mom is a slow progressor, but they could both be members. If the dad lived in this area I know they would have baptismal dates. One of the investigators was from a referral from a 14-year-old boy that is way, way cool and his friend is progressing. We serve all the time. We have done maybe 3 hours of finding in this area in 3 weeks but we get referrals from the members tomoo shcho/ because we serve them and they know we love them and they love us...I LOVE BROVARY! Food News -I prepare large salads every day. I make about 700 grams of salad a day for the 2 of us and we both make main dishes - noodles or potatoes, tacos or something. It is always good and we get really full every day. 1000 grams or one kilo is 2.2 pounds. I love using kilos/grams when I buy things because I know what it takes to get full in grams!Where I live has a market where I can get German Peanut Butter! It's so, so good! It's about 8 greven for 300 grams (about $1.60 - expensive here) but it's great! I can't think of anything else but I LOVE it here and the UKRAINIAN language is doosha, doosha vazhko or very, very hard AND RUSSIAN is even harder right now. I sometimes understand all that is said but its really, really hard to speak. Talk to you later. I love you all! -Elder Hokanson

2007-11-01T20:34:00.000-07:00

June 13th
Ok, so I LOVE MY NEW COMPANION!!!But my new apartment is lame it has no hot water at all I have had cold showers for 2 weeks! Heathers package came in the mail so I got a few things here that are great to have. We had 1 Baptism so far in the area and we have one new commitment for baptism for Sunday. She will be baptized. We have about 3 more people that all we need to do is commit them and they will be baptized and one that keeps coming to church but we wont commit him for a long time. He does not get the doctrine yet, he is getting rocked in GP class every Sunday but he is coming to church without us asking him we don’t have his phone # or his address but its cool he is coming to church and English class. So there is only me and my companion here in this branch. It is way cool my last ward there was 4 elders and 2 sisters so this place rocks. It’s small but there are a ton of people. The city is called Brovary.This branch has a ton of youth the church is growing here and this branch is a model for the rest of Ukraine. They are almost all super strong members. It is about to turn into a ward they could split it into 2 branches but I hope they don’t yet! Oh yeah, in my last area I was almost attacked by a drunk man again but not in this area my companion Elder Newbold in his last area got smacked in the back of his head and got the spisok (list) ripped from his hand and his arm was grabbed.I got pushed while going down the stairs and there might have been some real action there hee hee but don’t worry - I am not scared and you don’t need to be. This new area is great. It has been tracted 3 times over about but the work is rolling. People all know that we are American and speak English and they all bug us by saying stuff like, “hello my friend” and then you say back, “hi, what is your name?” and they are like shcho veen skazav? = what did he say? It’s so funny, and they say other things too but they are just dumb kids that don’t know English. I love you and miss you all and I really miss hot showers! One day the hot water will come back on though. I love you, miss you, good bye!

2007-11-01T20:22:00.000-07:00

May 30
Hello out there in the wonderful world of California! I am getting transferred - don’t know where. I am leaving my area on Friday morning I need to be at the office at 9am. I could have been sneaky and looked at the number list like my companion to see new comp/area but I thought I will not ask and will not look! But I really want to so bad! So yeah I am at this crappy Internet place today this computer is lame and slow and they don’t have AC like everywhere we go in Ukraine but whatever.So let’s see…Sasha is down to be baptized. He is coming to church and stayed the whole day. He got a job at the rynok (outdoor market), he has a tan, he is looking well, I am happy for him. Our other investigators are ok but we get dogged a lot - its lame. We had a nice lesson with a woman and her daughter yesterday but the daughter was in a trance watching TV, but the spirit was there the whole time we talked to the mom and she never once looked away from us. The area is picking up and I am packing up. Dang. It’s cool though. Nothing crazy happening nobody trying to grab/hit me so I am cool.I love you all! I hope you are reading the scriptures every day.

2007-11-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

May 23
Ok, it’s REALLY REALLY hot and humid. I sweat all day long and I only have long shirts and wool pants…wow! I step out of the shower I get my clothes on then about 10-20 mins I am getting sweaty and it stays all day long.So yes, the THREESOME its cool. I like my new companion, McGary.I went on exchanges and almost died from the heat of their apartment. I thought mine was hot, but wow, I was wrong and they did not have a fan! At least we do and I love my apartment. It has everything I could ever want next to AC but to bad. Oh and while I was on exchanges almost got attacked by a few drunk men they grabbed me and stuff but I was sober for one and stronger then them and got away and then briskly walked away, so its cool don’t worry about me.I am getting MINI TRANSFERED!!! I will be getting a new companion on the 1st I think. And I will be out of my wonderful apartment and somewhere else and I have no clue where. Could be anywhere but down south only Russian speakers go south. So I hope I get a cool companion.But anyhow I am happy here. I am just not too happy that I have to pack up my stuff again. I was hoping to serve in this area for 2 more transfers partly for the apartment and I love the members and we are just getting things rolling and I want to get to know my new comp here a lil more. If I go out west to like L'viv I will be really happy cuz I want to serve there and they have the best біблія shop ever (bible shop). Yeah, can’t think of anything else. I love you! Bye!

2007-11-01T20:11:00.001-07:00

May 16
So yeah I am in a Threesome now...He is a vegetarian or whatever that is, but hey he seems like a cool guy. He is from the OC but he moved to Utah before he went on his mission. He is 27 or something like that, Elder McGary.Update - not too much going on but its getting hotter and hotter and Sasha might be getting baptized soon we have new investigators, so that’s cool. They are really cool but yeah, I’m still in Kiev. 5,000,000 people and almost nobody wants to talk. Its hard here but beautiful. I mean its like a park - everywhere you go there are tons of trees.Wow, it wont work getting pics on here and I need to write pres so this is all for today. I am sorry. I love you all! Bye!

2007-11-01T20:05:00.001-07:00

May 9
Well not too much is going down here but Cаша/Sasha has a new baptism date and it’s later this month. That’s really cool and we are working with another man, but he is slow moving. He has a testimony of Joseph smith but he does not understand what God is. We need to get him to understand that he has a body and he is not everywhere and nowhere. The missionaries met with him like 14 years ago and we are trying again now. I hope we can get him to gain a testimony in that. The candy her…oh dang…snickers, kit kats, all candy is better here, and the Juice/сік is the best. And yet again it will not work getting a photo on here at all. Man, next week I hope I can go to the other pc place again cuz its cheaper and it works with the usb without funky passwords that don’t work. So yeah, we have English tonight. I have blister after blister on my feet but I am ok. My time is up. I love you all! Talk to you later for sure.

May 2
It’s been cool out here its like way cold right now. It has been snowing. Weird! I mean when I got here it was nice not even cold and it snowed 2 days in a row now.I hope and pray for you guys back home and am happy to hear that thngs seem to be doing good but I think I am getting used to my new diet. Its not bad though. There has been some holidays out here so nobody is out on the streets. Its crazy - most days there are tons and then its like a ghost town and the city has 5,000,000 people living here so its really weird. This week not too much going on but I am staying with my 1st companion for next transfer so I am living in the same place. So yeah, my companion is right here next to me. No tags, no suits for a while, no ties and we are asked to not match, so one missionary is to have a colored shirt on. We can not contact and not tract and other stuff. So my language is hurting from it and our numbers are dropping each week, but we are trying and I feel bad cuz I hardly help and we don’t get much stuff done like we did my first week or 2 when it was still cool. I don’t feel great about this. Heather gets mentioned all the time - the elders all ask about that nice ring I have on every day and I say my wonderful girlfriend back home gave it to me. :) Its cool and I am a legend here now cuz I am the biggest elder in the mission! I saw my first companion from the MTC. He is back now. He was in the MTC for 16 weeks! Crazy! We are going to go hang out today and see some cool stuff in Kiev. I wish I had more time on the computer. On google earth go to 50.25.33. north and 30.24.50. east and you can see where I live! Don’t type it in like that but just look at the numbers and you can see my apartment. I am on the 10th floor. I wanted to send pics but this computer wont let me upload. Maybe next time. I will try next time. But hey, I love you guys, I will catch you next week with maybe something cool… maybe.

2007-11-01T19:51:00.000-07:00

April 26

Sorry this is a day late - Yeah I missed you guys too! Elder Holland came and spoke to use so our day was way cool but way different it was way, way, way cool though. The spirit was so strong and after, yeah, he punched me in the arm. :) He is like a big kid, but a prophet, seer, and revelator. Ok so yeah, the baptism did not happen due to the bishop not wanting it to go down, so we talked to the mish pres and he said wait a bit, cuz if the bishop does not want him to be baptized, we could still do it, but it’s the bishop that makes the call for the gift of the holy ghost, and if Sasha cant get that it would be really bad, so we are waiting it out and going to prove to the bishop that he is a worthy man and he wants to be baptized. Its not for us to say he cant if he is worthy. Not too much going - on same old stuff, so I will catch you later. But some things I cant get here are peanut butter and taco seasoning, but if I am lucky I can find ranch dressing. Its super hard to find though. Maple syrup can not be found so some missionaries have mapeline or something like that. Also no root beer here soda but some missionaries have root beer extract or something and just make it. I will try to make a list of stuff you cant get here if you want to know.I will catch you all later. The pic is of Nastya Burinchenko (Heather's friend) and I in the Mission Office.

2007-11-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

April 18th
Well let’s see…I am doing well. I don’t know if I am still getting thinner - hope not. It’s still kind of chilly here most of the day. We still have some weird things going on in the mission that I will tell you about sooner or later but we are keeping busy. Sasha is getting baptized this Saturday. That’s really, really cool. The mission needs 300 people and like 10 more great elders in the stake and then we can split it into 2 stakes! So sweet! And from what I understand they are getting ready for the temple hotel to go up so the temple is just around the corner. It will be so awesome when they start and Elder Holland is coming on the 25th. Its really cool he is going to be able to speak to us and we can bring investigators. This week I got to go to a celo. I thought we were going to plant potatoes, but we just cleaned some that they were selling, but it’s cool. The trip out there was crazy! A 30min marshrootka ride, then another, and then we had to find this lady’s place that was hard. It took like 2 hours almost to find the place, but I got some good food and I tried their celo. It’s like bones and fat from like all things boiled then skinned and sits in the fridge and makes this thick layer of fat. I had some it was a little weird and I had some kvass - it’s like a fermented bread drink. Not breaking the word of wisdom at all, but its not that good. It sounds great to you all I am sure! ;) And yeah - that lady kissed me on the cheek 2 times from the side! I did not even know it was coming! I was sitting, trying to eat and bam! She got me! But yeah, that’s my update and I miss you all!

2007-11-01T19:08:00.000-07:00

April 11, 2007
It has been crazy here in Kiev! I can tell you some things but hey, Ukraine is cool. Parliament fell and there have been demonstrations all over Kiev. We are not in danger from it though. We stay away from the areas where it’s crazy like Midon and stuff but yeah, its cool.
My foot is still hurting - the left heel is anyhow.
Pouch mail goes to Utah then gets mailed out from there so I need USA stamps to send them pouch. I kind of want to see that pic of me when I got here. Please forward the email to me so I can see.
I have been eating well but not as much as I had been back home or in the MTC so I lost like 5-6 kilos or about 11-13.2 pounds in the first 19 days here in Ukraine - crazy! I went on exchanges with the zone leader the other day. His apartment is so sweet! We have a nice one but he has a better bathroom and better flooring. I want his apartment but with a microwave added.
Here soon we are closing 10 areas in the mission and we are losing a lot of sisters. Apparently no sisters are going on missions. It will be very hard to pick up the slack when they are gone.
We have a baptism in like 13 days with Sasha. It will be cool - he is a great guy. You see him and he has his head down, seems quiet and shy, but he knows what’s going on. You ask him about what he just learned and he will comment. We ask him to read the BoM and he does. He comes to church, its great and whenever he comments about anything about the church he smiles. It’s really awesome. Other then that I still cant talk about some things yet, but who knows…could be any day to any month before I can talk about it - Cliffhanger! It’s Crazy!

2007-11-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

April 4, 2007
Let’s see…crazy things going on over here, but its all good. Well my companion’s name is Elder Newbold and he is awesome but he leaves the seat down. J I will live. I am eating well. The only things we cant eat here are fish and mushrooms, so I am ok. I get granola, yogurt, an orange, and some kind of juice every morning and pizza pockets every day thanks to our cook Natasha (that was once Heather’s companion), but she cant cook for us anymore for the time being due to some funny rules, but maybe she will soon again. And regarding my MTC injures I am fine, no more pain, I am all good. I have been for a while. Jet lag is all gone. I am staying busy or trying to. The language is hard. Most people speak Russian and I don’t know how things conjugate so I don’t know what they are saying most of the time unless its infinitive or nominative. I love when people speak Ukrainian! It sounds so cool and I understand a lil bit. Lol! I have birthday cards for gramie, mom, and Jesi, but they need to get sent and they are in Russian – lol - so have fun reading them! It will take about 10 days to get there as soon as I get stamps to send them off. If you send a package send some stamps so I can send stuff pouch back home. Otherwise I need international stamps to send stuff home. But other then that, check out the news for Ukraine, hint hint. I love it here, I really do. I love you all! I need to check a few things and email the mission Pres. Peace!

2007-11-01T18:02:00.000-07:00

March 28, 2007

Where to begin…its awesome here – I’m still a little jet lagged but I am ok. My feet hurt! We tract and contact for hours and hours each day, just sharing our message. It’s pretty cool.

Here's my first picture in Ukraine - me with President and Sister Davis.

Please have people email me before my prep day each week and not huge emails. Today is the 28 (I’m sure you know already.) I am told to only email my mom. Apparently you can still send dear elder letters. They go in the pouch to Ukraine, so every Monday I can pick them up in the office. Cool right? All my mail needs to get mailed to the mission office - you have that info right? I am told all mailed letters take about 10 days to get to the office and pouch takes a few weeks sometimes. All of the pouch letters get opened because people were breaking the rules so if you send it pouch it will be opened, but its all good.

Well we are in an area where we tract and contact all day and we have two progressing investigators and a few that could be we still stay pretty busy though. It’s day 7 and my feet hurt really bad! One is all red on the heel and the other has a cut on the top of my foot. The more I walk the more it hurts.

I just want to say I love you all and miss you very much and want to talk to you so send me a few emails! Now I only get 1 hour a week so don’t over do it! I love you! I will talk to you later! I miss you! I love you! Good-bye!

Ps… I met Sestra Nastya Burinchenko here and one of Heather's old native companions cooked for us she is kind of tall and Ukrainian and her name is Natasha! Ok, I am over on my time - I love you! Good-bye

Introducing...

2007-10-19T22:38:00.000-07:00

...Zackery Tyler Hokanson! Cody's nephew!