First Week in Ukraine

I have finally made it to Ukraine! And it is amazing. I love it here so much already. I am so grateful that I had the chance to serve in Denver. 

Me by a mural next to a fire station across the street from my apartment in Denver. Me and the firefighters were both 'serving' the same great people!

It was truly an amazing experience. 

Me, my companions, and my great zone leaders all together for one final picture in Denver.

(Ashton and Denver mission president President Savage at the Denver airport.)

After 30 hours of plane rides and layovers, I made it into Kyiv! I am in a trio again - with Elder Prolo from SoCal and Elder Whiting from Saratoga Springs. They are so funny and so fun to be around. I love them both so much already. We immediately headed over to our area which is on the west end of Kyiv. Our ward/area is called нова Дарниця (sounds like Nova Darn-eat-sya) and it feels just like a ward from home. The people are so nice and so fun to talk to, I just wish that I could understand anything that they say back to me hahaha. It's really difficult to understand sometimes because I honestly don't know if they're speaking Russian or Ukrainian to me. Western Ukraine is turning more and more Ukrainian only, so many more people are speaking Ukrainian and some even refuse to speak Russian. The very first person that I contacted on the street - we asked him if he believed in God and he says "Yes. I hate Russia though. Russia is the worst." I only know that because my companion told me, but hopefully, things will be alright and people will be nice enough to still talk to me even if they're not a fan of my language. The Lord called me to speak Russian here for a reason, and I'll be sure to find out that "why".

Me and my new companions, Elder Prolo on the left and Elder Whiting on the right.

Later in the week we went knocking for the first time in an apartment building. It was terrifying! Not because of talking to people or knocking on doors, but because the building looked straight out of a horror movie. The old soviet buildings here are really old and pretty sketchy, but they're fun too and the people were pretty nice. If someone isn't interested, they're not afraid to make it obvious haha.  At least it helps us not waste time.

Some inspiring words written in very broken English on the stairwell inside of the first apartment building I knocked in Ukraine.

One great spiritual moment from this week was during this lesson with this great man named Sergei. He takes some English classes here at the church that some of the missionaries offer and then after the class he meets with us to talk about the gospel. I barely understood anything in the lesson, but he asked me how I knew the Church of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon are true. I testified to him in the best Russian that I could muster that I know because whenever I read the Book of Mormon I can feel the spirit of the Holy Ghost and as I have read the Book of Mormon every day and sought after those blessings promised from the Lord, my life has improved so greatly and I have never had so much happiness, peace, and joy. I told him that if the Book of Mormon is true, which I know it is, then Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. If Joseph was a prophet, then this amazing Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. Amazingly enough, he understood! I was so grateful to my Father in Heaven for blessing me at that moment to be able to be a witness of his Son and of his true church restored upon the Earth. I know Jesus Christ lives, I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I love this gospel, and I am so excited for the chance to continue to share this gospel in Ukraine.

Me, the sisters serving in our ward, and some members helping prepare invitations for the ward party.

Love you all so much!

More from Elder Day in another email:

[My] Birthday was great! Went to this really tasty Mexican restaurant with my companions in Denver and the zone leaders. It was so hot I was almost crying but it tasted amazing. I really miss those Elders, but I love the Elders that I'm with now so so much. They're amazing.

The flight to Ukraine was pretty good. I gave away a couple of cards for the church, so that was really great! One was to this really cool teenager that lives in Minnesota and one was to this really cool fella who is an engineer from Louisiana. Whatever happens with them will happen, but it's super awesome that I was able to do that. It was my last time contacting in English, so I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and it seemed to have worked out. There are no coincidences in the work of the Lord, and that certainly wasn't either.

I have two new companions! I am in a trio again which is so much fun. Their names are Elder Prolo and Elder Whiting and they are so so awesome. I love them both a ton. Right now I'm really scared to talk to people and it's really hard too hahaha. I need to be braver and talk to more people, but it's hard when I feel like I cannot say anything or understand anything they say in response. I'll work on it though. As you said, I want to talk to people. I still do kind of have to force myself to talk to people a little bit, but that is mainly because I just don't feel like I can do anything. Again, I'll just keep working on it.

Whenever we're on one of the really tiny busses, I always try to sit/stand next to somebody and then I say "Hey, it's my first week in Ukraine. I'm studying Russian. Can we practice together?" (I say this in Russian of course) and every single time so far they've always said no.  Hahaha but that's OK, I'll keep on trying.

Ukraine is really really cool though. The air and the humidity here feel GOOD. I don't know why but it just feels really nice. Hopefully, after a while, it will help my skin out a lot.

The people here are really funny. You'll try to stop them so that you can say something to them and they'll just usually walk straight on by and pretend you never existed. Sometimes they do stop and then you tell them you're a missionary and then they decide to pretend they never saw you hahaha. It's all good though :) everything here is great! I'm really loving it. Super exciting place to be.