Still Alive and In Ukraine

Hello to one and to all!

Believe it or not - yes, I am still alive. And yes, I am still in Ukraine.

I have now been in my apartment for about a month. We go out for walks, buy groceries, take the sacrament to our sisters, and get bad haircuts from the other elders. Basically, we're still missionaries except for every traditional missionary activity.

Things we still do though! Teach people the gospel! We teach through online tools such as Zoom. Right now I'm having my two younger companions Elder Johnson and Voorhees teach an "investigator" (he is a member who recently returned from his own mission) together without me so that they can practice their Russian. They're really enjoying teaching him and are amazed with his progression ahahahah. I'm kind of feeling a little bit guilty listening to them talk to their parents about this amazing investigator that we have but hey - one day they'll thank me. (Please don't let this reach their parents ahahahah).

Anyways... we also try to contact a TON of people. Phone calls upon phone calls upon phone calls... texts upon texts upon texts... peep my Facebook to see another way that I keep in contact with members, friends, and others while spreading the gospel. There is still work to be done, we just have to be more creative in finding it! 😄 I won't explain the whole story but recently I did spend about 7 straight hours texting people. I felt very nice and productive! Great feelings.

We have taken to cooking a lot of good and tasty meals. It has been really fun to hone that ability. I personally don't feel like I have really made any improvement, but hey - we're trying.

There's a lot of good time to study Russian. I'm honestly finding it difficult to accomplish at times just because once you've been in this long your brain eventually turns into peanut butter, but lucky mine is not yet at creamy peanut butter, but rather chunky, meaning that there's still some good parts of intelligence left in there. We'll see how long it lasts.

I'll explain the pictures down there - first is us with our sisters. They live about 90 minutes away by foot. Every Sunday we walk over there and take them the sacrament. It's a fun experience.

Me chilling on the train tracks with my new haircut which makes me look like a paintbrush. I luckily took a photo from a good angle. Anyways, this path along the train tracks probably seems like it is dangerous - and it is! Welcome to Ukraine. It's not actually dangerous because if you get hit by a train here you're probably blind, deaf, incredibly stupid, and very likely all three to some degree or another. Sadly based on my need for glasses, how often I ask Ukrainians to repeat themselves, and my ability to understand Russian, I may qualify.

Me and my companion, Elder Johnson walking to get our haircuts. We have to walk around with our masks so "[we] don't get fined" - Marshawn Lynch.

A good friend, Elder Hughes, with a birthday cake which I purchased for him. The lady at the cake store asked if I was buying it for a little boy or a little girl. Naturally, I responded a little girl (don't worry, I understood the question and spoke the Russian correctly, I knew what I was doing) henceforth the incredible little picture we have there on the front. The cake was ok - 4/10. Good enough to eat the whole slice, but not good enough to want another. If someone made this cake and served it to you at a party you would tell them that it "tasted amazing! One of the best cakes I've had!" but say no thank you to leftovers. Hopefully, that gives you a solid idea of the level of aptitude pertaining to this cake and its ability to fulfill our birthday desires of unhealthy eating. Honestly, not sure why I'm talking about cake so much. I hope that this is a good demonstration of my mental health in this quarantined state. Call it a litmus test of sorts.

BOOM. Great picture here. By the grace of the Lord, we have been blessed in this hard time with a new board game - Russian Railroads. The board game itself is not Russian made (Eastern Europeans don't really seem to play too many board games besides Catan sometimes) but I could not resist buying it for such an occasion such as a quarantine. In this particular game, we had accidentally miscalculated the points so Elder Johnson believed he had won, henceforth his large smile. Shortly after this photo, we realized that this was not the case and the disappointment was quite strong with him. It is ok - he has since recovered and is back to regular functional capacity.

I'm going to give you some verses that have become very relevant to me during this time. Please don't blame me if I use this later in a Facebook post. Mosiah 14:5-6

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.

During this wonderful time of Easter, it has been a miraculous time of study for me. I have come to a greater understanding of Jesus Christ's sacrifice for me and how important it is. Like the verse says, we are all like sheep and have made our mistakes, we have each gone down our own diverse paths, yet the Lord never gave up on us. Through his stripes, we are healed. He loves us so much that he was willing to take everything we did, do, and have come upon himself. I love Jesus Christ so much and I am so grateful for him. I hope that we can all remember the importance of Easter and the glory that comes in the resurrected Christ. In this there is hope. True and everlasting hope. 

Love y'all.