Didn't I Just Write You?!

Privet family!

So basically I'm gonna keep this email shorter than usual and send you lots of pictures from my Armenia trip. But before I do that here's my weekend for ya. Friday was kinda crazy. President Campero called and said that there was going to be an emergency transfer in the district. The Armenian missionary getting trained right now has been having some problems and so President saw best to move Elder Moss to Cold Mountain where the Armenian was and the Armenian to my district in Saltovka so that Elder Efoshkin (native from Moscow in my district) can finish training him. The Armenian only knows Armenian and Russian, no English, so it's been hard for other missionaries to train him. So my district's pretty interesting now haha. I've basically got natives from Moscow and Armenia, myself and Elder Lambert, and Sister Ward and Sister Turnbull who is getting trained. I'm still trying to figure out how to be a district leader as well haha. So this is just another curveball the mission has thrown me. But I know that all will be okay though. The Lord will help me figure out what the best thing is to do and how to better help my district. I'm a little bummed that Elder Moss was taken from me but I'll see him around. Our area here in Saltovka is just waiting to explode. We have 12 investigators. Seven of those are ones that Elder Lambert had and we just found five more yesterday in our area book that we don't know. So there's a lot of potential here. I hope that I can serve here for a while. It's a great area. One of these investigators is a brother from Nigeria. I don't think I've talked about this before but in Kharkov there are lots of brothers from Africa who come here for school and then fly back to Africa after they've been here a while or finished schooling. Many of them have joined the Church and most of them live in Saltovka and Alekseevka another area. So one of our investigators is from Nigeria and his name is Richie. He has met with missionaries for a while now and we met with him on Friday. He doesn't believe the Book of Mormon is true because he's gotten into some anti-Mormon stuff online, but he really wants us to teach him the fundamentals like faith and repentance and stuff. The gospel of Jesus Christ. But he doesn't want us to use the Book of Mormon at all. So our next lesson with him we're planning on only using the Bible and seeing if he'll give the Book of Mormon one more chance. I'll keep you posted on how that goes. Also Friday and Saturday there was an open house at the Saltovka Branch. Basically members stay inside and missionaries go on the streets inviting people to come in and see the Church. It really shouldn't be like this because it's not really our purpose but we helped them anyway. There were several people who came through though, which was good. On Saturday we all took shifts of being on the street and being in the Church if anyone came through. If people came through then we'd show them rooms in the building and have them meet members and stuff. But anyway, Elder Lambert and I were trying to talk to people on the street and we contacted a younger kid. His Russian sounded really funny but we kept talking to him and then he started talking English and asked if we knew English. It turns out he is an AMERICAN here as a missionary for his church, the Church of Christ. He has been here for 9 months and will be here for 9 more. He's from California and has grown up Christian. We asked him if he knew anything about the Church and surprisingly he didn't. But he said he had always wanted to read the Book of Mormon though and was interested to meet. We took him on a quick tour of our building and then got his number. Before leaving he said "I can't promise you'll convert me or anything but I'm willing to learn more about your church!" We're gonna meet with him this week and are way excited. It's a small world in Ukraine!

Also this weekend was Daylight Savings which was lame. I decided it's my most hated day of the whole year, especially because we found out at like 9:15 at night, then making it 10:15. But it's all good though. And the other thing that happened this weekend was that I got my triple combination in the mail! It's the new translation of all the scriptures in Russian and has been in the making for 5 years. The old Book of Mormon in Russian has many errors in it that are pretty embarrassing, starting from the cover. When translated it basically said "The Book of Mormon: New Opinions of Jesus Christ" haha and now it says "Another Testimony of Jesus Christ" so already its good. I didn't think I'd get my copy so quick because all of Europe East and Russia have ordered them, missionaries and members, but I got it and am super excited to start reading. In fact I already have started and it's awesome. This is going to help the work move along here. And now for a few comments from your emails. I'm glad Elder Lambert didn't burn our apartment down as well, that would've been bad. That's funny that Neal's comp did that. Our apartment now is SUPER nice. It is basically like living in America, only with a Soviet oven. I need to send you some pics of it, it's one of the nicer apartments in the mission. We have a couch and a good study table. (not all apartments have study tables, it's weird) and our bathroom is very nice. A lot nicer than Cold Mountain's. Give Jenny's parents a very big thank you from me. That is beyond generous! And I'll keep my eyes open for my package. Sounds like it's going to be great.

You guys are the best! I love you so very much. Tell everyone I love them and thanks for their support. Keep on keepin' on and I'll talk to you later!

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From Armenia with Love

Privet family!
 

To start this email off, I'm sorry that I wasn't able to send you guys anything until now. We didn't have a P-day in Armenia and we just got back last night around 8 PM so things have been a little crazy haha. You're probably wondering how my trip was and everything so I'm just going to jump right into that. I'll start from last Saturday. So I went on a split with Elder Moss last Saturday so that we could do our last minute Armenia things. We had to pull lots of money off and then change it into American dollars and stuff. The office messed up and put my money on a different elder's card because there was a mix-up with our names (first name Taylor, his last name is Taylor) so I had to end up pulling off $200 from my account. I wasn't very happy about this. I got it reimbursed to me but there's no way for me to put it back into my account that I know of so I think what I'm going to do is change it into US dollars and just keep it throughout my mission or something. Or I might sneak it in a package I send home to you soon with Armenia souvenirs. I'll tell you what I end up doing. So anyway, Saturday we had to do all this money stuff and pack a bag and then we got on a train and traveled from Kharkov to Donetsk. It left at 10:06 PM and got in around 6 AM. We're lucky that we caught it because we got halfway there and I realized that I forgot the tickets so we had to beeline back to Elder Moss' apartment, grab the tickets, then catch a taxi and ride to the train station. It was crazy! But we got there alright and caught it. We rode down with another elder in our group from Kharkov named Elder Mika. He's from Alpine I think. So it was just us three on the train. It was an absolutely miserable ride. It was like 90 degrees and our window was broken and we were all just sweating the whole ride. Elder Moss had Settlers of Catan sent to him from home so we settled catan for a while and then tried to sleep but we hardly slept at all. When our train got in we left and then stayed with the elders in Center Donetsk (which is where I went for a week when I went to Donetsk if you remember). We went to church with the center elders. The branch there is doing awesome. It was like going to church in the US kind of. Not as many people of course but the members just understood how to do their callings and stuff. Then after Church we came home and just crashed haha. I felt guilty for taking a Sunday nap but it felt so good though! We were just dead tired. After this we went to the office and filled out our paperwork then called it a night. The next morning at like 5 we got up and got a taxi then drove to the Donetsk airport. We first flew to Kiev, then to Armenia from there. We got to Kiev around 8:30 in the morning and we found out that our flight to Armenia got delayed by several hours, so we decided to pool our money and take a taxi through Center Kiev instead of waiting like 4 hours at the airport. On our way there, our driver took us to the Kiev Temple!!! It was amazing!! We were only there like 15 minutes but it was so cool to just be on the grounds. We took lots of pictures there and then continued on our tour of Center Kiev. I can't wait to go back to the Kiev Temple but really go there at the end of my mission. It's gonna be awesome. Center Kiev was beautiful. It was kind of the same as Center Kharkov, but just with nicer buildings and stuff. We came back from this and then caught our plane to Armenia. We flew to the capital city, Yerevan. It was pretty cool flying over the Caspian Sea and seeing it frozen and with snow and then landing in Armenia and seeing like a middle-eastern desert. As soon as we entered the airport there we had to convert some money into Armenian Dram and buy passports to be there. Then after this we met the driver for the mission there. His name was Ruben and he was the best driver in Europe haha. We all went to this Georgian restaurant and ate dinner. It was pretty good food. Some of it was nasty but most of it was good. After this he drove us to the mission home and we met the mission president and his wife there, President and Sister Carter. They gave us an outline of our schedule and just talked about the mission in Armenia and stuff. There was a group from this mission that went to Armenia last week and there were 2 elders. They had to proselyte for their trip. But we found out that because our group was so big (7 elders and 1 sister) that we didn't have to split up with their missionaries and that we could just break off into two groups and explore Yerevan while we got new visas. So we just split into our MTC rooms and I was with Elders Moss, Lewis, and Groothuyzen. Yerevan was an amazing place! I can't really describe it with words, it was kind of similar to Ukraine just because people talked Russian and there were the same apartment buildings but other than this it was completely different. It was very clean and the people were super nice. Many people spoke English that we talked to on the streets and were very helpful. And everyone knew Russian and were always happy to hear Russian and speak with us. I don't really know how missionary work is done there because proselyting isn't allowed, but the Church is growing there. So basically for my trip we just got to walk around Yerevan and take tons of pictures and go sight-seeing. I took lots of pictures but I'll send you a lot on Monday when I have more time. There is an elder here in this mission now from Armenia. He is getting trained right now. His brother is in charge of all the visas for missionaries in Armenia so we got to meet him and he helped us get everything in order. He's also a branch president there. So when we weren't doing visa things we were just walking around and sight-seeing. There was a KFC and Pizza Hut so of course we stopped by there haha. Everyone told us that they wouldn't taste the same but they tasted almost exactly like America, it was awesome! I don't really know what else to say about Armenia now, other than it's probably the coolest place I've ever been. I doubt I'll ever go back there but I wouldnt've minded staying longer there haha. When I send you pictures you can just see for yourself. Our last day there was Wednesday and we just went souvenir shopping, picked up our visas, then went to the airport. I'll be sending some things home for you. We then flew back to Kiev Wednesday night and then to Donetsk from there. We got in around 10:30 PM. We stayed the night with the center elders again, then we left yesterday afternoon around 1 PM back to Kharkov by train. Lots of traveling but it was an awesome experience and trip! I'm grateful that I got to go and that we all stayed safe throughout it. And now I'm back and trying to get adjusted to missionary life again haha.
 

So this was my trip and week! I'll email you again on Monday and get back on schedule with emails and such. Sorry I didn't send any pictures with this. I was going to send a few but this computer won't let me. I'll send tons on Monday. If you have certain questions that I didn't answer in this then email me and I'll answer them. I'm short on time now so I've got to wrap this up. I love you all very much and hope that all is well with you. Everyone just keep on keepin on! Have a great week!


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Greetings from Saltovka!

Privet family!

This has been a crazy week to say the least. Lots of changes, lots of goodbyes, lots of hellos. To start off though, I have been transferred BACK to Saltovka, which is still in Kharkov. (I say back because after Elder Schoen went home this is where I served while I waited for the end of that transfer right before I served with Elder Robison. I served there with Elder Hardy if you remember. It was mid-December and I was there for like two weeks) And in fact, I have been transferred to the exact same area that I was in for that short period of time so it's pretty crazy! I kind of remember the area already and some members from this branch that I met. So basically the Lord has more plans for me in Saltovka! This area is a lot smaller than Cold Mountain by a longshot. There were places in Cold Mountain that I never went to it was so huge. But so far I'm loving Saltovka. I suppose you're wondering who my new comp is. I will be serving with Elder Lambert. He's an awesome kid from Tooele. He just got finished being trained so I am to him what Elder Robison was to me. He's doing great so far, I'm excited to work with him. He's a hard worker and is a funny kid. Him and his trainer white-washed into one of the other Saltovka areas which means that they didn't know what they were coming into, just like what Elder Schoen and I did. So they did lots and lots of finding for like three weeks and got lots of contacts and investigators from it. So we've already had a few lessons in our short time together. I'm excited for these next several transfers here, they're going to be great. I'm already learning tons from Elder Lambert. It's a little crazy going from junior companion to senior companion. All of my companions so far have been older than me but now I'm the oldest. But I can already tell you that the Lord truly helps both companions to work together, but especially the senior comp. I've already noticed that I am able to understand people better and speak better when I need to. Of course I must be worthy of these blessings but it's awesome that the Lord always helps us to help others. I have also been called to be the District Leader for the Saltovka Branch! So my DL responsibilities are doing call-ins every night with my district, calling in to the zone leaders every night, and holding district meetings every week. Also, if anyone in my district is having a baptism then I interview their baptismal candidate. My district is amazing- Myself, Elder Lambert, Elder Moss (yes, my comp from the MTC Elder Moss!), Elder Efoshkin, Sister Ward, and Sister Turnbull. I am really excited and humbled by this calling. I am already learning tons from everyone in my district its awesome. You already know the first three elders so I'll talk a little about Elder Efoshkin. He was born in Kharkov, moved to the Crimea which is the island under Ukraine, then he moved to Moscow because his parents got divorced. I'm not exactly sure how he found the missionaries yet or how they found him but he got baptized not too long ago and is the only member in his family. And now he's on his mission here. I can't even imagine being a member for like less than two years and coming on my mission. It's so crazy. But it's amazing though. I'm sure he will teach us all a ton throughout these next transfers. Sister Ward is in her last transfer. She is from California. She is always very happy and enthusiastic about everything haha. And Sister Turnbull is getting trained by her. She just got here last week. I think she's from Ogden, not exactly sure though. She is great as well. She went to prom with one of the older elders here haha so that's crazy. But anyway, sister missionaries are the best missionaries. They just work harder than everyone and have tons of success so it will be cool to have them in the district. This is my first district with sisters as well so it will be fun. Right now Elder Lambert and I are living where he was trained but the apartment didn't pass apartment checks due to the fact that there is mold on the walls and a cockroach problem. It's pretty nasty we killed like six cockroaches my first night here. So we just got the OK to move today so after I send this to you we're moving to the apartment where I was back in December. It's seriously like an American apartment, it's so nice. We are excited to move but no one is more excited than Elder Lambert haha.

Now if all of this news isn't crazy enough for you- new area, new comp, new responsibilities, moving- than maybe this will be. Everyone's visas have been having problems with them and it's getting harder and harder to renew them. So because of this, my whole MTC group and I are going to ARMENIA for half of next week for a visa trip! It's gonna be sweet! This Saturday I'm taking a night train down to Donetsk and then our plane will leave from Donetsk Monday morning. We'll be in Armenia for the rest of Monday, all of Tuesday, and half of Wednesday. And then we get back to Donetsk late Wednesday night. So basically how it's going to work is we will be proselyting in Armenia with the Armenian missionaries while our visas are getting renewed. They only know Armenian of course but most people in Armenia also speak Russian, so we will be in threesomes I hear and therefore can speak in Russian with Armenian people and the elders we're with won't know what's going on with us, and we won't know what's going on with them! It's going to be a sweet experience, I'm excited. It will probably be the only time I ever go to Armenia so I'm gonna make the most out of it. The Burr's have been there a few times and they showed us some pics back when I was with them. It looks like a way cool place. There's lots of castles and green fields and stuff. So yeah, I don't know what else to say about this other than I'm excited and have no idea what to expect haha. So there's a chance I might not send you an email until like middle of next week but don't worry you'll get an email somehow.

And now if all of this news isn't crazy enough for you, I have a crazy story for you from yesterday. So after Church we came back to the apartment and decided to eat a quick lunch and then go back to the branch because we had a lesson (It's like 20 min to go back and forth) So we ate really quick then went to our lesson. It was a very good first lesson with a contact that Elder Lambert and his trainer got named Vitali. His mom is a Jehovah's Witness but he seemed like a very sincere guy and already wants to meet us again on Wednesday. The Spirit was with us and we were able to teach to his needs. It was a great lesson. So after this we came back to the apartment. Elder Lambert walked in and was like "Elder, it smells way bad in here. It's hard to breathe." So we started to open some windows to get some air in there. And then he's like "Elder, I left the gas on the stove!" So then not too long after this there was a beeping sound and a voice coming out of it saying "Warning..Warning..Carbon Monoxide" So we ran out of the apartment and called President Campero. He said to just open all the windows that we could and then go sleep over at the other elders' apartment for the night. He told Elder Lambert to have the floor and to give me the couch because it was his fault haha. President is just funny like that. So basically we just ran back in after this, opened all the windows we could, and then stayed the night with Elder Moss and Efoshkin. It's been an insane first weekend together. After we get moved today things should be better for us haha.

So this has been my week in a nutshell. It sounds like yours was not as hectic. It's weird to finally be out of my greenie area now. I learned a lot from Cold Mountain though and I'm excited to just apply things I've learned and continue to grow. It was sad to leave because it's the only area I know but that's just part of the mission. I will always hold those members near to my heart. I have sent some pics this week of my favorite members I met with before I left. The picture with me and Elder Frandsen on the couch is the Morgoon family. They are awesome missionaries and share the gospel with their neighbors. They have a less-active son but in time he'll come around again. The picture with us standing is President Miroshnichenko and his wife. (aka Valera from the MTC who was our investigator) They are amazing members. And the picture with me and the lady with black hair is Vika. She is less-active but has become active again. Elder Schoen and I met with her as well as Elder Frandsen and I. And the other picture is our district with the Burr's. I'm going to miss them too! And the pictures last week, the red-headed boy is Akim. We met with them a few times but didn't get pictures with them. He is almost 6 years old and is hilarious. The younger kid is named Pasha. He is currently the 2nd counselor in center branch, is going on a mission soon, and his brother is serving in Kiev right now. He's a stud. And the old lady with the hat is named Irina. She is a very forgetful old lady in center but she loves meeting with missionaries and helping us with our Russian. I will remember these people forever! And to answer your other questions, yes we've been doing internet later in the day now and doing all of studies in the morning. I'm not sure when Daylight savings is but it's probably soon. And I'm glad that all is going well with you at home.

I love you all so much. Have a great week and keep on keepin' on!

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The Time Has Arrived

Privet family!
 

Well, you might have guessed it by now but I received my first transfer call this past Friday. I will be leaving Cold Mountain after 4 transfers/6 months/a quarter of my mission and I will be serving somewhere else in Kharkov! My guess is that I will go to Saltivka where I was for a week and half after Elder Schoen left but I could go to anywhere really. A huge group of missionaries just went home and many of them were serving in Kharkov so that's why there are so many open areas now up here. I could potentially serve with Elder Moss in Saltivka, that'd be cool. But only time will tell now. This Thursday is transfer day and I will find out who my new comp is and where my next area will be. Cold Mountain will always have a special place in my heart. I have learned a lot here, especially about accepting the Lord's will and working effectively. To answer your question why this area has been so difficult, well one, I am in Ukraine haha. People are not very open to the gospel. They have their own beliefs and hold strong to their Russian Catholic traditions. Many people just plain and simple don't believe in God or they only believe in God and nothing else. But you have to remember that 20 years ago this place was under Communism so people were told that there wasn't a God and were forced to believe a certain way. But nonetheless there are tons of prepared people here, we just have to find them and help them accept the gospel. Another reason that this area's been difficult is because it's a chastni dom sector, which basically means there are just houses everywhere very similar to neighborhoods back home. People don't want to talk about the church because they are wealthy around here. We've done lots of tracting but right when we say church the door slams basically. But a very big reason is because many missionaries before me have chosen to be lazy and have not done a lot of work in this area, saying that it's been "dead." But there are no dead areas, just dead missionaries. So lots of what I have done has been getting Cold Mountain revived. There are no bad areas either, each area just has differences. The work is the same all around though. People have a choice to accept the message we carry or reject it. All that we can do is invite. You might be interested to know that the work done here in the first 25 years of the Church being here is 10 times better than what was done in Brazil in its first 25 years. And we all know how the Church's success is there. And there are many prophecies of the work just exploding over here. The work is going how the Lord needs it to. But back to Cold Mountain, it's a great area. I am glad to have started my mission here. I love the people and the members are amazing. Elder Frandsen and I were talking and he told me that the mission just gets better from here. Coming on a mission is the best thing that I ever could've done. I've come so far and learned so much in a very short time and I still have a long time in front of me to grow everyday. It's awesome! I just thank the Lord everyday that I can be here and strive to learn from everything. My comps, the members, the people. It is an amazing work.

 

And now I've just got time to comment on your emails/add some tidbits. This past week I passed my 8 month mark. I think you know these dates but every 14th of the month is my in-Ukraine mark and every 29th of the month is on-my-mission mark. So basically my mission is 1/3 over. And this Friday is my 1 year anniversary of opening my call. Didn't I just open that yesterday? But seriously though. Time is crazy to think about, therefore I'm done talking about it haha. You might also like to know that only Elder Frandsen will be staying here in Cold Mountain. The other apartment will have two new elders next transfer and Elder Frandsen is probably going to train someone in my place. I'll keep you posted on what happens. So tomorrow I'm going to make a stop to Barabashova, the place that sells ties and lots of other things. They sell luggage there so I'm going to buy myself a carry-on. I still have some US money but everyone has told me to just pull off money instead of change it because I don't know when I might need it so I'm going to pull off $50 tomorrow from my account so watch for that. I have a few more package requests. You should send me several Kool-Aid mixes because we drank some last night and it was amazing, as well as some Ranch packets. That would be awesome. And I don't know if you were planning on sending this but I don't need the hairclippers anymore because the Burr's gave me theirs and I'll just carry them around throughout my mission now. And American candy is always good to get, like Reese's! But that's it though for the package. Just tell me whenever you send it and I'll be expecting it. Don't go too crazy again because that package was just massive last time!
 

I finished reading the Book of Mormon today in personal study! I don't know if you remember or not but before I left I started reading a paperback copy I had and was underlining all the names of Christ as well as missionary applications. I took it with me here and just finished it today. I counted 1596 references to Christ, which is almost exactly 3 per page. I know that the Book of Mormon is true with all of my heart. I have prayed about it every time I finish and I have felt the Holy Ghost testify to me that it is true. It is evidence that our Father in Heaven loves us and that Joseph Smith was and is the Prophet of the Restoration. It contains the fullness of the gospel and is the keystone of our religion. It was truly written for our day and guides me daily as I study it.
 

I love you all so much! I hope that you have a great week and that all is well. By the way, how is Dad's new job going? I'm sure it is going good. The Church is true and this work is amazing!
 

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