Monday, May 26, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.