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.

Goodbye Elder Maximo, Hello Coronavirus Border Closures

Well, it's been a wilding few weeks. We've been teaching some really cool people. It's so much fun to be back in my first area. I love this ward so much! I don't remember if I wrote this in my last email, but everyone has been so nice and so excited to see me again. Everybody has been saying "Welcome home!" I love this area. Missionary work has, until very recently, gone by normally. Meeting with members, having good lessons, contacting around, it's been a great time.

My companion is super great. His name is E. Maximo, he's from Brazil, and his Russian is insanely good.

Now things getting crazy. Obviously, things have changed a lot with the new coronavirus. Things have only just barely become serious in the last couple of days here in Ukraine. There was only one recorded case for a considerable amount of time here in Ukraine of the coronavirus. The problem is - Ukraine is not testing people. Other European countries have put Ukraine on the same danger level as Italy, China, and South Korea, meaning that some high medical people are not confident that Ukraine's low infection number is accurate. So here's what happened:

Sunday morning comes around and me and my companion get a call from President. He involves me and my companion individually that we both have the option to be sent home if we choose. We both have preexisting medical conditions (me with a certain weakness towards respiratory diseases stemming from my childhood medical history). We were instructed to make contact with our parents and come to a decision as to whether we should stay or not. I decided very quickly to stay. My companion's decision took a lot longer because they were unaware if he would be able to make it home on his arrival date due to it not being far away. Eventually, he decided to stay here as well, but unfortunately, the decisions did not last long.


Today, having a relaxing P-Day inside, we received a new call from our mission President telling my companion, E. Maximo, that he has 2 hours left and he needs to pack. It was very sad and such a strange feeling. We packed him, got into the car with the mission driver, and I got dropped off at the assistants' house as my companion and my old companion, E. Prolo, were sent home a little earlier right before the Ukrainian borders were closed. The area presidency was concerned that they would not be able to be sent out on time so they were shipped off 4 hours before the borders all closed. So very sad.

Anyways, it's been an absolute rollercoaster. We shall see what happens. Apparently, the situation in Ukraine is very serious. Cities are getting shut down, entering into emergency mode, and public transportation is being proposed to be completely shut down. We shall see.


The work of the Lord continues to roll on. I will now be training an elder whose training began with E. Prolo. I am super excited and cannot wait to continue to find a way to be productive in this new temporary state of strange missionary work.

I know the gospel is true. I honestly think it's very amazing that this is happening. This year is a testimony builder that the gospel is true. We need it now more than ever. I love the Book of Mormon. I am so glad we have a living prophet. I know Jesus Christ is our Savior and that God loves us. Love y'all. Have fun with the pics.

The pictures are of us with members, us with our district, the huge group is the little P-Day birthday celebration. I love serving the Lord.

Facing coronavirus with a brave face.

This week has been contacting mania for me and my companion! Seriously, crazy amounts. We only have one investigator and we're probably dropping him, so looks like "[CONTANCTING] IS BACK ON THE MENU, BOYS!" It's honestly pretty fun. We've been trying lots of new things to make contacting a little more interesting. This week we went against the cultural taboo and actually tried some serious amounts of tracting.

It was truly miracle after miracle. We were contacting past a building and we saw not just one, but TWO doors which were miraculously left slightly ajar. This is a big deal because if a door is closed there is no way you're getting in unless someone who lives there lets you in (which is so rare). The two doors just stuck out to me so strongly and I could not ignore the feeling that we needed to get in there. I took my companion and we prayed behind the building to know if we were truly being led there. We felt good about it, so we went in! Knocking is actually so much fun sometimes - something that I never believed I would ever say from my days back in Denver. We knocked the entirety of the first section - nothing. We then entered into the second door and kept knocking - nothing. Nobody interested. 

Even though not a single person was receptive to our message, it was one of the few times where I've truly felt like I was being led. I was just filled with happiness. I think it's just a testimony building experience for me that we can be happy even through trials if we remember our purpose and always remember our Father in Heaven's plan for us. It reminds me of the Lord's counsel to Joseph Smith in section 121 of the Doctrine and Covenants, verse 7: 

"My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;"

Even when we're going through difficult times, we can still feel peace and joy thanks to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even in the face of rejection time after time, I can honestly say that contacting this week was a blast. Those doors being open truly did lead us to someone ready to be taught the gospel, and that was me! One of the greatest blessings of a mission is how much you learn. My knocking on door after door after door is not going to convert any investigator to the gospel, but it will convert me, so I'm willing to continue to push forward trying to spread what is the most important and most valuable thing that we have in this world.

During a different contacting session we were able to find a man who was interested! We gave him a Book of Mormon and he gave us his number. It's our first number that we got this transfer, so we were so excited that my companion gave me a hug. Pretty fun moment. 

One other miracle that we experienced this week came through member work. We had a day where we had absolutely NOTHING planned in. We, admittedly, were not super excited to spend another entire day contacting so we tried to set up some lessons. It was amazing! 3 people were able to do it that very day. The lesson that stood out the most was the final lesson. We went to their apartment and began to talk about the Book of Mormon and our favorite verses. She had not been to church in a long time, but she still remembered her favorite verse, Ether 12:6. She asked us to share her favorite verses and my companion shared 1 Nephi 3:7. We testified to her that we know that God provides a plan for all of us to obey his commands. After she had read and we began to testify, she began to cry. It was such a spiritual moment. We'll continue to work with that wonderful small family and help them receive the full blessings of the gospel. 

Me explaining the Book of Mormon to Ukraine's most celebrated poet, Taras Shevchenko himself. He didn't give us his number though, but maybe next time.

Us eating with some of our homies from English practice after English practice. There's a place called L'viv Croissants which makes, you guessed it, some pretty great croissants.

Me take a picture next to a couple of old friends. We actually just found a bunch of really strange, cool wooden carvings in a park and decided to take a bunch of pictures with them. They were very cool but some were just weird.

Life in Chernigov would not be complete without riding a few cannons and enjoying the view.

This one got a lil' rodeo on me, but I kept him under control. Taming a cannon is hard business.

Anyways, love y'all! Have a great week.

BONUS PICTURE! Here I am inside of the oldest church in Chernigov. The Orthodox churches are extremely interesting - there's no places to sit, they're covered in icons of priests, candles are all around, and gold is everywhere. They're very fun to look at on P-Day.

It's been a crazy week! We ended up in Kyiv for more than half of the week due to a big zone activity last Monday, zone conference, interviews, and then a bomb scare on the Kyiv metro that prevented us from going home... needless to say, pretty eventful.

The zone activity was really fun. All the missionaries from the Kyiv East zone came in to play some games together, learn some cool things, and have the opportunity to contact a little bit with a new companion! It was very fun. I got to go out contacting with one of my good missionary friends Elder Maximo from Brazil. It's great to contact with new Elders because you learn new ways of contacting and always is a learning/teaching experience. We also played some volleyball in which I only ripped a single pair of pants... my favorite pair too. It was OK though because it wasn't bad enough that anyone would notice. Still pretty sad moment for me and my pants, but that's OK, I've bought new pants and I have moved on now and he's in a better place.

Me and Elder Huntsman on an exchange in the big square in center Chernigov

Zone conference was so amazing. President Kumferman gave this incredible presentation about the atonement. Every time I learn more about the atonement I also learn how much I don't know about it. It is truly the most amazing and most important event to have ever occurred. I am so glad that Jesus Christ was willing to, strong enough, and worthy enough to complete the atonement for us. He came to this Earth and did everything that the Father asked of him. Truly the greatest example that we could ever have.

Interviews were wonderful as always! I love going to the Kumferman's house. I get to play Ticket to Ride and eat amazing food! I love the Kumferman's so much.

Us on our ride back to Chernigov. Needless to say, we were all a little tired. 

When we got back to Chernigov things were going CRAZY. Saturday was Chernigov Day and they were setting up so much stuff in preparation. Once Saturday finally came Chernigov was probably the most exciting place to be in in the whole world. There was a huge stage set up, multiple outside bazaars fulls of cool little goodies, and tons of food and people. Also there were these really cool marching bands from different cities in Ukraine, so we watched some of that for a minute after we gave up on contacting (just because it was so busy and hectic and no one was interested in talking during all the commotion). Overall it was super cool and really fun to see the whole cultural event happening!

One of the marching bands getting ready to head out. The marching bands all just played a ton of Bon Jovi and some Michael Jackson and Greenday. Basically just a ton of American music. Needless to say, I was a bit surprised. Pleasantly surprised though. 

Me and Elder Goethals standing near where they had a huge performance with the marching bands with hundreds of spectators.

Sunday there was this huge marathon event that lots of people participated in which unfortunately led to the closer of lots of roads, meaning that the buses weren't running the normal routes which resulted in lots of people not being able to make it to church :( still was a great Sunday though!

All of the preparations for the marathon, starting in the center square of Chernigov.

One thing that was also really amazing - the new Book of Mormon video! It was so good. If you haven't watched it you have to go and check it out. I just want to say that I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that there is so much to gain from reading from it. Every day when I start my personal study, the first thing I do is open up my study journal and make a place to write the personal inspiration I want to receive from my reading that day.  I have found that once I have set up that expectation the Lord just pours out amazing inspiration. When we open the scriptures hoping to receive something the Lord always delivers. I love personal study and I am so grateful for the chance I have to share the Book of Mormon with people.

Bogdan, this cool kid who we contacted. I was talking to someone else and he just walked up to me and waited. After I talked to that lady I turned to him and he thought we were cool so he wanted to walk around with us. After talking and walking to him for a while he wanted a selfie before we went. Cool kid.

Love you all so much, have a great week.

This huge pizza we all ate together. Says it's for '8' people. We proved that wrong pretty easily.

Старейшина Дэй

We missed our bus but the Book of Mormon is still true.

This very old church right across the street from where our church is located. It's very beautiful and very cool. The fountain lights up at night.

This has been one crazy week! We got transfer texts and I'll be staying here for another transfer. I'm really excited about that. We're also going to have 4 elders in this city now! Me and my companion will be with missionaries new to the area, so they're splitting our companionship.

Me and Elder Pincock cooking one of the greatest meals that a missionary could eat - rice, beans, and chicken.

A random picture Elder Pincock got of me as I brush my teeth - this thing I am holding is buckwheat milk. He thinks it's terrible, but I like it. Basically like almond milk, just very different, and very Ukrainian.

It'll be great to have more missionaries here so that we can do more work. The Lord is gathering Israel and we're so lucky to be a part of this wonderful work!

There's this kind of cool, old bridge around where we live. People around there are kind of grumpy when you contact them though.

Something that was really hard but was a great lesson to learn happened on Thursday. We were trying to go out into the country to visit some less-active member's on their dacha (basically their little farming summer-home). We got to the bus stop and we waited and we waited and the bus never came by. The bus only comes around once an hour, so we were very concerned that maybe we had missed it for some strange reason. We decided that if we caught the next one we would still be fine and all would work out. The safest bet, we decided, would be to hurry off to the bus depot where we could catch the next one right from the start. Right before we got there, we saw the bus we needed leaving. We chased after it and tried to do everything we could but nothing worked. It left without us. Pretty sad. We were both extremely disappointed. To make matters worse, the lesson we had scheduled later in the day then called us and informed us that he had to cancel too. We just went from a day full of things to do to nothing. We were a pretty sad bunch. It was a great opportunity to learn to be happy through everything and helped us realize that the Lord has a plan for us. Random things happened through the day that allowed us to accomplish a lot of work and to have a very productive day. It was a great learning experience (even if I would be glad to never need to go through it again.)

Me just standing on some really strange, very sketchy sidewalk. 

Lots of contacting, lots of working, lots of things to do! I am so grateful to be in the service of our God.

One of the large parks here in Chernigov with a very old church in the background.

It's so comforting to read the Book of Mormon. At times when the mission is hard and I need some extra motivation, I know that I can always look towards the Book of Mormon for help. It has so much power. The cute little primary song "Scripture Power" is a real thing! I promise. And if you want that same sort of power in your own life, just open the Book of Mormon and allow it to strengthen you.

I love you all so much.

Salo: The most amazing raw bacon you've ever tasted

This has truly been a week of miracles. Some of the coolest things that have happened on my mission this week happened.

Igor on the left and Vlad on the right.

We met these awesome guys, Igor and Vadim. They work with this organization here in Chernigov and in other cities in Ukraine where they teach kids the dangers of drugs and alcohol and the importance of family. They doing some really amazing work and are really impressed with our message too, considering they have similar themes. They've talked to some missionaries in the past and aren't really interested in changing what they're doing, but it was really nice to see that there are other people out there spreading wonderful messages. Really brightened my day.

We met some amazing new people to teach this week. One is this teenager who goes by Viktor because no one here can pronounce his actual name. He speaks Korean, Russian, Ukrainian, and English, so clearly there's something or two that I can learn from this guy. He is an absolute miracle and proof that the Lord is doing his work in gathering Israel. He got into contact with a different missionary, who got him in contact with us. He said that he's already read the whole Book of Mormon, knows it is true, and is really desirous to meet with us. We've had a lesson over Skype (because he's currently travelling) and it went really well. We're so excited to keep working with him.

Some amazing borscht and salo at my favorite restaurant here in Chernigov. Salo is this really strange thing - it's basically salted raw bacon. It's incredibly tasty and is one of my favorite things. I know it may sound gross, but take my word for it, it's incredible. 

Two people came to church this last week who we're teaching - first time this transfer. I think it might have surprised some of the branch members that we actually are working super hard up here. One used to go to church when he was super young with his grandfather in a different country and was really surprised to see that the church is here too! I wasn't shy to mention that maybe it's a sign that he finds the church everywhere he goes... He came to church and we're going to be meeting later this week.

The other man that came is really interesting. The first time he came to church we actually thought he was a member! We found out when he came to our English Practice that he's actually not baptized, just very interested in the church. He went to the Kyiv open house a long time ago and has been interested in the church on and off since then. We had a lesson with him where he mentioned that he really needs to pray and find out if the Book of Mormon is true. We testified to him super strongly that he will get his answer and reaffirmed this knowledge. He said he will read and pray and then we will discuss baptism soon! We're happy to be a part of finding his path through life.

Me in front of our building. It's a pretty cool one. Cute color. I'm a fan. 

A mission is HARD. It is unquestionably the hardest thing that I have done in my life, but it is the most wonderful thing that I have been a part of. I'm so glad to be a part of this work. When it's hard, I'm often reminded of Matthew 11:

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Whenever I'm having a hard time, I just pray and ask my Heavenly Father to give me strength through the atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that Jesus lives, I know that he is our Savior, and I know that this is his work.

I love you all, I hope you have a great week!

Me and my companion tried this different Ukrainian restaurant today (I just love eating at Ukrainian places.) and they gave me this soup. I don't remember what it was called, but it's got potatoes, carrots, and meat. They warned me, saying that this one is super spicy. Nothing. Ukrainians are super sensitive to spicy foods because they just don't really have that kind of thing in their diet, so things that are just normal to us can be incredibly spicy to them. Still tasted really great though.

The Lord Sent a Friend on a Hard Day

Sorry that I missed last week, there honestly wasn't much that happened. We went to Kyiv twice, went on an exchange, and just tried our best to find some more people to teach. Didn't work out exactly the way that we wanted it to, but hey, that's just the way contacting is sometimes.

Me at this train station. I just like the way it looked. You can catch a train from here to basically anywhere in Eastern Europe. 

This week has been pretty much the same. Work is going a little slow, but that's alright. Gives me a lot of time to try and work on my contacting skills! I've been trying a lot of Book of Mormon contacting and just straight up church card contacting and just trying to get people talking but it's not doing too great. I'll keep experimenting and figuring out what I need to do.

One thing that was tough was the Ukranian Independence day. We didn't realize exactly how big of a deal it was going to be and put in some contacting time in the evening - big mistake. The streets were empty except for one park in the center of town which was PACKED with people. We tried to contact but nobody was stopping and we got yelled at once or twice for being Americans speaking Russian. Oh well, we try our best.

I really love the branch here. The people are just so fun. The church is so small here so it makes the entire branch one big family. It's so fun to feel their love and to show it back.

I was having a tough day Sunday morning and was so not excited for church. I was just so tired and not ready to have to interact with members and be the example I need to be. When I got to the church, one of the members said "Hey, I've got a surprise for you." I'm like "What?" cause this is super random. She takes me into the kitchen and one of my best friends from Kyiv is there, my man Yaroslav. I love him so much and it truly changed my whole day. He really came up to Chernigov to visit his girlfriend, a member in our ward named Lara (also a great friend). When he saw me he said "I came up here just for you!" and Lara responded "No you did not, you came up here for me." He said "Alright, alright..." and then turned to me and whispered: "We both know why I really came up here big boy." One of the funniest moments of my life and became one of the greatest days I've had on my mission. I know that the Lord is in the details of everything and is always looking out for us. D&C 121:7-9 are so true. I witnessed that just yesterday, in our hardest times, sometimes God gives us our friends to bear us up, fulfilling the truthfulness of verse 9 in that section.

Yaroslav in the center, one of the greatest friends that I've made on my mission, Lara, his girlfriend, on the left, and a random assortment of her siblings/nieces.

We visited Lara's family last Monday, the Shavekos. They were the first members here in Chernigov and used to hold sacrament meeting in their house. They wanted me to get on the trampoline but I was way too frightened.

While I was in Kyiv I had the chance to play more Gatorball on Monday, a weird mix of handball and soccer. This is my friend Bogdan Peshkov who is a member in my old area. He served in Salt Lake on his mission and we like to invite him even though he doesn't like to play.

Me with Elder Gale on the left side, my MTC companion and great friend, and Elder Hart on the right, an awesome missionary who just returned home. We were on the metro heading back from zone conference.

Anyways, I love you all. I know that the gospel is true and that the Lord is gathering Israel! It's a wonderful blessing to be a part of the process. I hope you all have a wonderful week.