Many interesting people in this world

This week has been a tough week. I've been super sick and we haven't had much to do except for contacting, so that is an extremely tough combination. Thankfully God has been bearing me up and has helped me get through it all and actually enjoy it! Although contacting is sometimes the worst thing in the world it's been getting a lot more fun with time and it's now at the point where I reasonably enjoy it. Honestly, I cannot believe I'm saying that, but it's been pretty fun this week.

Some English practice contacting we did right outside of a metro station

There's not much to talk about concerning contacting, but I can tell you some of the really interesting people that we contacted this week:
 - A woman who is a Messianic Jew, meaning that she's Jewish but believes that Jesus Christ was the savior.
- A man who tried to convince us that God wants us to sin and that the only source of happiness in this world is money and doing bad things.
- Some Nigerians who invited us to their church where the preacher performs "miracles" where people who used to be disabled now just stand up and throw away their wheelchairs.
- A 16-year-old who learned English by listening to rap music and can only talk by sounding like a rapper.

Pretty fun week to say the least.

havingfun.jpg:  Sometimes you just have to have a little fun.

Something that was so incredible and a huge testimony builder to me this week was an experience with one of our favorite investigators, Dmitri. When we first met him we really didn't think that the lessons would last for very long because it seemed that he had no genuine interest in learning more about the gospel. With time and with more lessons we've really seen his faith grow and his interest in learning more about this gospel grow much larger. Yesterday, he came to church for the first time, which was a wonderful experience for him. We had a lesson with him after church about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We started talking about faith and we asked him what he could do to grow faith in his life. He then said "Well, I think faith is kind of like a seed. If you plant it in the ground, take care of it, give it things that help it grow, eventually, it will turn into a tree." We were blown away by the answer and then showed him Alma 32 and began reading about how Alma "compares the word unto a seed." He started reading it and the spirit was so strong. It felt like the words on the page were speaking to him. One of the most incredible experiences on the mission yet.

I too can testify that faith is truly like a seed. Even if it's tiny we can plant it and nourish and strengthen it by experimenting upon the word. As the seed within us grows we can begin to feel more of God's love and the Holy Spirit in our life. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that this Jesus Christ lives.

Love you all so much! I hope you have a great week!

Temple and Fruity Dino Bites

May 20, 2019
This week has been such an amazing week! One of the most absolutely busy weeks but super great.

It all started off with interviews with President earlier this week which was so fun because we got to hang out with Sister Kumferman at their house. She is the greatest ever. We played Ticket to Ride together while we waited for our interview which was so much fun. I love my mission president so much, he's the greatest man in the world.

Me and Elder Whiting and Sister Garner with some amazing members from Moldova during our temple trip.

On Thursday we went to the temple because tons of people who Elder Whiting worked with in Moldova came up to do some sessions at the Kyiv temple. It was amazing to be with them during their first time going through. It was really fun, because in a weird turn of events we were able to do back to back sessions, which was a really interesting experience. It was just a huge testimony builder to me of how much I love the temple. It truly is amazing how special they are and lucky we are to have so many in the world.

Friday we had zone conference, which was super awesome! It's so much fun to see all these amazing missionaries that I've become friends with as well as learn some really interesting doctrinal information. Then we came back to our church and played ping pong with some members and an investigator. Super fun.

Another one of God's greatest gifts to us, Fruity Dyno-Bites, was gifted to me from an awesome missionary in our zone. It's my most favorite cereal in the world, so it was certainly a tender mercy.

We've dropped some investigators this week and met with some others that haven't been able to meet in forever, so overall a good balance of work going on. We're trying super hard to find some more people but you know how it is sometimes.

I talked in church again yesterday. I was sweating bullets the entire time hahaha it's so scary when I don't know half the words I'm reading off my paper. Went well though. The members complimented me, saying that my Russian is certainly coming along "step by step" hahaha. That's nice to know that it is improving though.

Also, we had a super fun contacting session with the sisters on Sunday. We walked around with a whiteboard that had the question "What makes you happy?" and tried to get people to write on it. We met some amazing people through it and had a blast of a time. Those little tender mercy times make serving a mission the most fun thing in the world. I'm so very grateful to my Father in Heaven who has given me so much, including this wonderful opportunity to serve him. I love you all so much, and I hope that you have a great week!

Happy Mother's Day

May 13, 2019
Happy Mother's Day! It was so fun being able to talk to my wonderful Mama and Grandma this mother's day. I love them so very much.

The rain came down, and the floods came up.

This week has been really difficult for missionary work because it has been raining so hard. It seems that every time we walked outside rain would start coming down. Sadly, Ukrainian people's mood seems to be highly affected by the quality of the weather, so these poor conditions make for some really poor contacting. Hopefully when it actually starts to feel like Summer the contacting will be a little friendlier. The rain has made this just such a difficult week because everyone loves to cancel because of the rain. This next week will be a lot better because we have interviews, zone conference, and a temple trip! I'm so excited.

Something that was really fun was Elder Whiting's trainer, who is Ukrainian, came into Kyiv to visit and eat lunch with us while he did some business things. It was so fun to do some roleplays with him and practice Russian because it was an opportunity to try to teach a real Ukrainian without any of the actual pressure of a real investigator! Helped me realize even more how far away I am from having good Russian. Maybe someday though. Gift of Tongues is real, but it's still a process. I'll keep plugging away.

Elder Whiting's Ukrainian trainer wearing his old nametag as he eats with us. 

There have been some really incredible miracles this week. Something that was so awesome was an investigator who had recently dropped us called us Saturday night and said that he wanted to come to church on Sunday! He came for both hours and it was so great. Was a big testimony builder than when we always work hard we can bring about miracles in the work.

Something that has been so much fun this week has been memorizing scriptures! I have made it my goal to start trying to memorize a scripture along with my Russian and God would bless me with better memorization skills. So far it hasn't been super useful for my Russian, but one of the verses I memorized this week has brought great comfort to me:

Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life. (2nd Nephi 10:23)

 How joyful it is that we get to choose for ourselves which pathway to take in life! God loves us so much he has given us the ability to act for ourselves. Of course, we don't always make the right decision, and that is why the atonement of Jesus Christ is so vital and so crucial in our lives. The ability to repent is the greatest blessing that we have ever received from our Father in Heaven. I'm so grateful that our Father in Heaven loves us so much that he sent us his Son, Jesus Christ, who took his sins upon us. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that through Him we can once again return to our Father in Heaven and receive eternal joy.

I love you all so very much! I hope that you have a wonderful week!

One Wilding Week

May 6, 2019
This has been one wilding week, to say the least. It's probably been the fastest week of my mission so far just because it's gone by so quickly.

 A contacting activity we did with our sisters involving asking people why families are important. Makes contacting fun!

First things first, the week started off really strangely in the beginning. We had a bunch of black mold in one of our bathrooms (which is super bad for you. Like horrible.) so our landlord had to come over with his wife so that they could remove it. They wanted us to be there the whole time so about half of our Wednesday was wasted by some stupid mold. Felt pretty bad. He made us deep clean the kitchen the whole time, which was DISGUSTING. Missionaries have lived in that apartment for about 6 years now and let me be the first person to tell you - that kitchen absolutely looked like elders had lived in it for 6 years straight. We pulled out the counters and it was so disgusting behind it. So disgusting. He made me get in there and scrub that bad boy to kingdom come. Luckily he was really proud of me because I did such a good job. He's actually a really nice and funny guy so it wasn't too bad.

We had dinner with a few members this week and they're all just so amazing and so funny. One thing that I absolutely love is the humor of these amazing Ukrainian people. They are just so funny and so wonderful. It's truly amazing to see the wonderful bonds that are created around the world from people just desiring to come closer unto Christ. We have brothers and sisters everywhere! One of my favorite members in our ward,  брат Паша (Brother Pasha, who always calls me 'Elder Good Day') did some magic tricks for us and gave us some of the most amazing juice that I've ever had. On the other side of the spectrum, we had yet another Iranian party with one of our investigators and one of the sister's investigators. It's always so fun and they always love to hear the spiritual messages we've prepared for them. Our investigator gave us this Iranian drink and it was the absolute NASTIEST thing that I have ever tasted. He said it's a mix of water, yogurt, and lots of salt. So much salt. It tastes like the ocean mixed with rotten milk. He loves it, but wow, that made me really second guess Iranian food.

Something that was really funny was during Sunday our bishop asked to have a little spiritual thought right at the beginning of the second hour of church to talk about what we should say during testimony meeting. He said that when we talk about really complicated and strange church terms such as 'celestial room' or 'endowment' it's not great for investigators and can often make them confused and feel somewhat strange. He said that when we bear testimony it needs to be simple, concise, and just full of spiritual truth that the spirit can bear witness of like a missionary does. Then, he suddenly asked me to come up in front of everyone and bear my testimony to them as an example. He picked me because he knows that I can barely say anything, so the only thing that I can testify of is the most simple aspects of the gospel. (The thing is, I couldn't understand a thing of what he was saying, so everybody laughed that I didn't have a clue what was going on. I laughed too cause I figure it's better to laugh than to cry 😉) I bore my testimony and said what I could say and then the bishop gave me a huge hug. Needless to say, I love my ward so much. It's full of so many amazing people who are so strong in the gospel.

My exchange with Elder Read from American Fork where we ate some really good pie!

Another really cool thing we got to experience was our exchange into center Kyiv. It's like an entirely different city. It's nothing like the old Soviet concrete-block buildings that populate our area. It looks way more like a western-European city. It's so beautiful and there are so many foreigners who live there which makes it a very fun place to contact. For P-Day today something really fun we did is we visited this old Soviet statue which commemorates the birthplace of all the Slavic empires, the Motherland Monument. Underneath there is an AMAZING WW2 museum which our investigator, Ivan, wanted to show us. Absolutely a blast. (Also we ordered some tacos today to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Gotta do something to help us remember that America really exists somewhere out there.)

Motherlandstatue.jpg - The photo of us in front of the really famous statue. Really cool and super huge.

ukrainetank.jpg (and the other one) - A really cool tank painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. For some reason it's fine to play on them, so we took advantage!

This week my spiritual thought comes from what we can learn about the atonement through the Book of Mormon. As I explored the analogy of Lehi's dream more this week I thought about where the atonement of Jesus Christ comes in. I thought about how no one holds onto the iron rod perfectly. We all get lost in the mists of darkness at times. Luckily, our loving Heavenly Father has given us a way in which we can always return to the Iron Rod as if nothing had happened and that is true his wonderful son, Jesus Christ. Just as we have the Light of Christ in our own life, he is our light in those mists of darkness. Through his suffering, we can be forgiven of our sins and still be able to experience the fullness of the love of God. I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and for his atonement and all that he has done for me. I would encourage you all to search for more knowledge of Jesus Christ and his wonderful sacrifice for us in the Book of Mormon as you read this week.

I know the Book of Mormon is true, I know that Jesus Christ suffered and died for each one of us, and I know that we have a Father in Heaven who loves us!

Have a wonderful week, I love you!