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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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

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!

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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