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!

Easter (again) in the Park

It's been a really hard week but a great week to serve in Kyiv, Ukraine! I don't know what it was but there was just something in the air that made contacting so painful this week. Nobody wanted to talk to us and it just felt so terrible. One thing is for certain though - the Law of the Harvest. As we learn in Galatians 6:7,9 that whatever a man sews, he will reap. Me and Elder Whiting are continually putting our faith in the Lord that our efforts will not go unfruitful. Hopefully one day the seeds that we plant will truly turn into great fields ready for harvesting.

Sister Lydia. We went to go eat at a member's house this week, Sister Lydia. She is the nicest woman in the world.

Sometimes there are some contacting periods that are just so, so fun. Yesterday (the day of Easter for the Eastern part of the world) we went with the Sisters and set up a whiteboard in the park with the question "What is your favorite part about Easter?" It was really wonderful to hear some great answers such as "spending time with family." After they would write their answers on the board we would try to talk to them about our church. It didn't always work super well, but it definitely led to some great conversations and some planting of seeds, as well as being really fun. I love the Ukrainian people so much. They're so funny and so nice. I am increasingly grateful to my Father in Heaven for sending me to this amazing place in the world.

Funny ad. Somebody with a very familiar face is advertising that he is willing to fix your computer. His name is "Garrick".

We had some amazing lessons this week. I have found that there is nothing more powerful in our lives than when we testify to people of the eternal truths that we all learned before we came down to this Earth. As we were teaching the Plan of Salvation to a man I just felt the spirit so strong and it reaffirmed my own testimony of God's plan. I'm so very grateful for this wonderful opportunity he has given all of us to come down and to receive a body and to make our own choice as to what we want to do. We truly have a loving Heavenly Father and sharing that message with the world has been so enriching. I promise that as we continue to bear our testimonies in all times and in all places, whether through words or through actions, our testimonies will be strengthened.

I love you all so very much. I hope you have a great week!

Easter #1 and #prophetsarepeopletoo

Mon, Apr 22, 7:58 AM (8 days ago)
This week has been a great week to be in the service of God here in the wonderful land of Ukraine. Something that was so great was the opportunity we had to celebrate Easter this last Sunday. In the Western world, it was on this past Sunday, but here in the East, it's this next Sunday, so the festivities haven't even begun yet. I'm so excited to have the chance to celebrate the greatest thing to happen in the history of humanity twice. We had a special Easter service on Sunday so that it wouldn't conflict with the Easter craziness with next week. We had a few investigators come which was really special for them. My district and I were going to perform a special musical number, but sadly we didn't have enough time so we'll be performing that next week.

My final picture with Elder Prolo and Elder Whiting. Sadly me and Elder Prolo were a little distracted. It was wonderful to serve with Elder Prolo and great to continue to serve with Elder Whiting!

We've been doing lots of contacting this week. Lots and lots of contacting. We've been having a hard time meeting with anyone recently because of the craziness of the elections this past week, so that has led to a lot of time trying to meet with new people on the street. Over these last 3 days, we've had some really insane conversations. The first man was this really weird Orthodox priest who told us all these things that were so strange. When we tried to bring up some important things that our church had, like a prophet and an apostle, he said "Why do we even need apostles? They're not important." We mentioned that Jesus had apostles, so the true church of Christ would have apostles too. He didn't think that made sense. The next day we were talking to a babushka about the gospel and she just kept talking, and talking, and talking. Never stopped. We had no opportunity to end this conversation because she seriously never stopped talking. She was nice, but sadly a bit of a waste of time. The next day we talk to a man on the street who took one look at the Book of Mormon and said: "that cannot possibly be true." We asked 'why?' He said "Because it's written by people. The Bible isn't written by people. Your book cannot possibly be true" We said, "Do you mean prophets? Like Abraham, Moses, Daniel, etc. was a prophet?" He said "Yes, exactly! Prophets, not people!" We said "Exactly! We believe that too. People, who were prophets, wrote the bible and also wrote the Book of Mormon," he then responded "Nope, that's impossible. Prophets aren't people. A person can't write God's word." Needless to say, this man was a little confused. We tried our best. #prophetsarepeopletoo

We're the coolest missionaries on the block - the G Force

One thing that I have been truly amazed by is how much I love to contact. At first, it was so difficult to contact. So extremely difficult. Even getting started now, it's so hard. It's really difficult to get motivated to want to contact and to talk to random people on the street. But as soon as I get started and start asking people about God and about the Book of Mormon it is the greatest experience in the world. I feel so much happiness and joy sharing the true and full gospel of Jesus Christ with the world. I want to testify to you all that you can feel this same happiness from sharing the gospel in your life. Whether it's through being a great example or by sharing a spiritual truth that you know in a conversation, always seek to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and how it has blessed your life. I know that when you do, you will feel happiness like nothing else. I have seen and felt that joy in my life as I have been a missionary and my testimony has grown so much stronger from it.

We had a party with some of our investigators from Iran. We had some great food and they taught us some Farsi! A wonderful experience and very tasty.

I love you all so very much, and I hope that you all have a very great week! Continue to seek to grow your testimonies and strengthen your faith in our wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ.

80s on my wrist (Ask Hunter what that means Mom)

Mon, Apr 15, 2019

Walking to Serve (Walking across a square in one of the more beautiful parts of Kyiv as we head to a city-wide service project)

This week has been a crazy week. It feels like that every week on the mission honestly. The craziness started off earlier this week on the last P-Day, where after we ate dinner with a wonderful family in the ward I sprained my ankle on the walk out of the apartment. One thing that's really difficult about Ukraine, the concrete is laid so poorly here and is so messed up that it would be lawsuit after lawsuit in the United States. So sadly the concrete got the best of me this last week and destroyed my ankle. I could barely hobble back to our apartment. The next day I woke up and my ankle didn't hurt. I was so excited that it was OK and we could continue working, but as soon as I started walking around shooting pains went throughout my ankle. Sadly I was out for the count that day as we slowly watched my ankle swell up to a huge size. On Tuesday, my ankle still hurt so badly so I asked my companion, Elder Whiting for a blessing. After that my ankle began to heal tremendously. After having the worst ankle sprain of my life I've been able to continue to work and function pretty close to normal. Absolutely the miracle of healing to be able to continue to function as a missionary and having my ankle heal this quickly.

Weekly Planning (A picture of us during weekly planning. I am the scribe of the group as we write what we want to teach our investigators this next week on the window. Elder Prolo was having a very 'exhausted' moment during the time of this picture.)

Something amazing that I was able to witness was stake conference here in Kyiv this past Sunday. It was so amazing to see so many wonderful saints from Kyiv gathered together in love for the Lord. Sadly, almost the entirety of the meeting was held in Ukrainian so it was impossible for me to understand, but there's nothing more exciting than seeing all those gathered together in unity for their love of our Lord.

Lenin Pin (A very cool Soviet-era pin I bought featuring Lenin and some very inspiring words)

After that, there wasn't anything absolutely amazing that happened this week besides lots and lots of work and trying to help our investigators come closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Another amazing thing that happened this week was during a lesson with one of our tougher investigators. We were teaching him about the Book of Mormon and sadly I could not understand anything that was being said (like usual though). During the lesson, I felt such a strong impression that I needed to ask him why the Book of Mormon would be important to him personally. Although I could barely understand what his response was, I could tell that the question was very important to ask him at that moment and helped him realize how important the Book of Mormon is to his life. When it was my turn to testify of the power of the Book of Mormon at the end of the lesson, the Russian was able to come out so easily. Although I always struggle with saying anything in Russian, when I testified at that moment I knew exactly what I should say and how to say it. it was amazing to be a mouthpiece for the Lord and to testify to this wonderful son of God of the truth of the restored gospel. I am so grateful to my Father in Heaven for helping me explain this wonderful truth that I have discovered for myself.

Game of Thrones (We did another escape room this week which was so fun. It was a real challenge but we beat it with 5 minutes left!)

We received transfers earlier this week and sadly Elder Prolo will be leaving this wonderful trio to go down to Moldova. Elder Whiting and I will continue to hold down the fort here in our area Nova D. He was wonderful to serve. we had some amazing times serving together this transfer. We worked so hard and had so much fun doing it. There's nothing more fun than working for the Lord and trying to do what he would have me do. Helping people become closer to their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the greatest work I could be a part of. I am constantly reminded that there is nothing more important than our relationship with our Savior. I had my interview with my mission president earlier this week, and I was reminded that our goal should be to make the Savior the focus of our lives. When he is our focus, everything else will fall into place. I would encourage you all to continue to work to place the Savior at the center in your life and continue to build your personal relationship with your dear Lord and Savior.

It's been a transfer of hard work and amazing miracles. I'm sad that it has come to an end, but I'm so excited for what the next transfer has in store.

I love you all so very much, and I hope that you all have a great week!

Hard work and volleyball

This week has been one of the busiest weeks of my life. Every single week I keep saying to myself "I have never been this tired before" and yet every single week I seek to set a new personal record. I am exhausted and I love it! I am so happy to be out here serving the Lord. I am so happy to be doing the Lord's work. There are some days where it is so hard, but there is nothing more satisfying than trying my best to help people come unto Christ.

Picture of my district.

One thing that was really special was that I got my first phone numbers this week! Up until this point I have never received a phone number while contacting out here in Ukraine, but this week I was able to receive three. I was so excited. I started off asking all of them if they knew English and then transitioning into how we're volunteers here for our church. They were interested in learning more. Made me so excited.

Something else that was really fun this week was we played volleyball with a lot of investigators and people from the ward. People here LOVE volleyball and have been requesting it so we decided to make it a wonderful opportunity to get people into the church and have a good time. It was really successful in terms of turnout, but the quality of volleyball was not the best, to say the least, hahaha. So much fun though.

Besides that, this week has just been full of teaching people and contacting. Nothing incredibly notable, just days being absolutely full of things to do and places to be. One thing that has been such a blessing this week is the opportunity to watch general conference. What a blessing we have to be able to hear from a living prophet. If you haven't had the opportunity yet, I would highly encourage you to listen to conference and hear the wonderful words from the Lord.

I love you all so very much. I hope you have a great week and continue to feed your soul and strengthen your faith. I know that this church is true and that the gathering of Israel is happening. As our beloved prophet has said, it is happening and it is our choice as to whether or not we want to be a part of it.

Love you!

Additional note to Mom:
Love you so much, mama. Hopefully, I responded to most of your points in our phone call. So great to talk to you and the rest of the family. I love you all so very much. It's so fun that we're able to call so much more than 4 times on our missions now. Makes me feel so happy to see you all and be able to tell you all about the greatness of serving the Lord. Hopefully, it's uplifting for all of you and a pleasurable experience.

[Referring to General Conference] But yeah, I can't believe they didn't say something about missionaries! Crazy :)

Also, something that's hilarious that I forgot to say - people here think it's so funny that my name is Day. They think it's hilarious. They love to call me "Good Day" and make jokes about it hahaha. What a great name we have.

Love you all so much. Have a great week. <3

Going to L'viv

April 1, 2019 (7 days ago)

This week was an amazing week and just a week of miracles.

Me in front of an amazing building in L'viv.

This week we were so busy. So ridiculously busy. We had to go to the other side of Ukraine to L'viv for a training conference which was amazing. It might have been my only chance to go visit L'viv because they only send Ukrainian speaking missionaries out there. Luckily some people were nice enough to speak in Russian when we needed to figure out where we were going, but they hate speaking Russian over there. It felt almost like a different country. Amazing experience. One thing that was horrible though - we missed our train ride home! It's about an 8-hour train ride, and we only missed it by three minutes. Horribly disappointing. We had to get a train for way later and it was going to be an overnighter with the horrible little tiny beds. Luckily, in the downtime, we got some amazing Georgian food, but the train ride back was horrible. Undoubtedly one of the worst night's sleep that I've ever had in my life. Luckily though, I did survive.

A super delicious restaurant in L'viv.

This week was just filled with lessons. Absolutely filled. We taught 7 lessons to 8 people and almost all of them went really well haha. One thing that was so great that happened this week was we had three people come to church! We received a referral from a member. His name is Arash and is Persian. He was interested in the Book of Mormon that he received from another Persian member in our ward and came to church. The best part is, he brought his friend too! They're just amazing. I just love the people that we teach so much. There's nothing I want more than to help them come unto Christ and help them find salvation. I just love this work so much.

One thing that went incredibly well that we were really scared about was that we had to teach the second hour at church this week. We planned this huge lesson about helping encourage members to do missionary work themselves and how they can do that in simple, easy, nonscary, meaningful ways. We were really nervous but it went incredibly well. Absolutely an amazing blessing of the Lord. At the end we passed out these cards for a special Easter meeting we're having later in the month and people just kept asking me to give them more and more so they could invite more and more people. It made me so happy to see them so excited to do missionary work. I know that as we try to go and share this gospel with those that are important in our lives that we will be blessed. I would encourage you all to try to continue to be a missionary! As it was once said: "Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words."

Today for PDay we did an escape room as a district. It was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle themed. Needless to say, it was a blast.

Besides so much work this week, there's not really much to talk about sadly. I just cannot express how much fun I'm having. It's so much fun and so, so much hard work. It's unquestionably the greatest thing that I have ever done. I just want you all to know that I know that Jesus lives. I know that if we put our lives in line with Heavenly Father's will for us, we will be blessed beyond belief. I have seen it as I have come on a mission. I love you all so very much. Also, I hope you're excited for conference! I cannot wait.

Love you all so much, have a great week!

Power in scripture study

This week was an awesome week! Ukraine is an amazing place and such a fun place to serve the Lord. This week I started contacting on the street all on my own! It's the most horrifying thing in the entire world. It's really hard to just start talking to anyone because the culture is completely against doing something like that, so what works really well is using a 'survey' that just pushes more and more told gospel questions and wanting to learn more as the questions go along. I started giving it to people on my own and it was the hardest thing ever hahaha. I can't understand them, they can barely understand me, but I'll keep working on it. Most people are really really nice and understand that I'm clearly very new with my language and help me out. One thing is for sure though, the spirit testifies to people no matter what skill level my language is at. I'll continue to try my best to testify to people and to tell them that the truth has been restored!

Eating at Пузата Хата, a really amazing Ukrainian restaurant. We ate there for Elder Prolo's birthday. Food from Пузата Хата. Definitely doesn't taste like anything from America but it is AMAZING.

One really great contact that I had this week was with this man on a bus ride. I asked him if we could practice Russian and he said "We can try" in English so then I was so excited that I could actually talk to this man! Tender mercy from the Lord. I tried to use Russian as much as I could but it didn't get very far, so we just started conversing in English. He said that he wasn't trusting of churches, which is understandable in Ukraine because the prominent religion is very corrupt and essentially a business. I told him that in our church none of our leaders are paid and that I'm not being paid to be a missionary. In fact, I'm paying a lot of money to be here. He was really amazed by that. I gave him a card and he got off on his stop. It felt great to testify to this man that there is a true church on the Earth today.

We also had a TON of lessons this week, which was really fun and very surprising that almost none of them were canceled. We teach a lot of 30/30 lessons which is half teaching them English and half teaching them about the gospel. I'm really useful for the first half and I struggle a lot in the second half, but I'll keep trying. I testify when I can and just trust that the spirit is working through me.

Meeting and eating with the Шулген family.

One amazing thing that has been a great testimony builder for me this week has been the power of scripture study. We had a zone conference that talked about how we can improve our daily scripture study and it was amazing. One of the things that were suggested was not just reading from cover to cover, but serious topical study and searching for themes, connections, and patterns. As I've tried to implement this over the past week my study has improved tremendously. I also talked about this topic in sacrament meeting this week during my first talk! It was really hard but it went quite well. I want to encourage all of you to continue to study your scriptures and seek ways that you can improve your learning. When we actively seek the word of God he blesses us tremendously in our lives.

Elder Prolo, Elder Day, Elder Whiting

Love you all so very much. Continue to grow your faith through prayer, scripture study and church and you will be blessed. Love you!

Call Home:
This morning we also got to talk to Elder Day. He video called from the family history center by the church. He shared some other stories too.
The pigeons are scary and huge, but everyone is nice to them because there isn't a difference between pigeon and dove in the bible there.
People are surprised when he says he likes it there. They expect an American to not like it.
The grandmas there (babushkas) remind him of Grammy Day. Spunky and loving and strict.
The ward there feels just like our home ward. The people act the same, he just can't understand them.
The work is really hard but he is loving it!