Monday, August 18, 2008

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

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

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

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

З любовю, Старійшина Гокансон
With love, Elder Hokanson

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

Update from Heather

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

To see the updated entry click here.

Monday, August 11, 2008

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

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

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

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

Monday, August 4, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

I love you all! Talk to you next week!

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

Monday, July 28, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

Happy Birthday - Take 2

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!

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

Monday June 2, 2008

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!