Monday, April 9, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hello for this week everyone!

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

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

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

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

I love you all! Talk to you next week!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!