Down to Donetsk!

Privet family!

Well as you can see from the title this week, I received my second transfer call and will be serving somewhere down in Donetsk. Crazy stuff! My transfer predictions went completely opposite. Elder Lambert is staying one more in Saltovka (his greenie area) and I am the one leaving. This means that Elder Lambert will serve in Saltovka for like 7 months. Very long time. That would be like me serving in Cold Mountain for one more than I did. He's pretty bummed that we're getting separated but that's life on the mission. I'm also pretty surprised but I know that wherever I go Heavenly Father already has it planned out for me and that it's where I'm supposed to serve next on my journey here. I heard some rumors that I might possibly serve in the office in Center Donetsk which would be way cool but we'll find out this Thursday at transfer meeting where I go exactly. My time with Elder Lambert has flown by. We've seen and done tons of stuff, I don't even know where to begin. But my main memories with Elder Lambert are just having a blast while still working hard everyday and being blessed to find and baptize Akbar. I feel that all of the companions I serve with are the right ones and that I learn what I need to from them at my time of need. It's awesome!

This past week I had two splits. The first one was with Elder Tadevosyan. He is from Armenia and knows only Armenian and Russian. We did a pretty crazy service project on the split and helped a non-member husband of a member move a huge chest of drawers from one apartment to their apartment. It was pretty crazy I don't know how else to explain it. He was drunk and yelling in Ukrainian the whole time and it weighed probably close to 200 pounds and we'd walk with it for about 30 seconds then rest then start again. I didn't understand anything going on haha. But at the end of it all we shared a little lesson with him and he wants to know more now about the Church so hopefully the other elders are able to meet with him. My other split was with Elder Smith, one of our zone leaders. We taught a first lesson to a contact and attended a baptism in center. A brother from Nigeria got baptized and it was a great service. Something that I learned from both of my splits is that it's really clear to me that only the gospel of Jesus Christ can truly bring happiness to us in life. I am grateful everyday for this opportunity to preach the gospel to people who are really in need of it and help them to enjoy the same happiness that I have.

We also had some great lessons with Akbar this past week. One of them was at a members house and we talked about temples and family history work. They showed us their visits to the Temple (they used to have to go to Freiberg Germany) and that is also where their daughter got married. They made a video of the wedding and it was just awesome to see that and be there with Akbar and explain why temples are so important. He wants to go to Kiev and we're trying to figure out how we'll get him there. He's doing good, we're just taking time to explain everything to him over and over. We were thinking that it wouldn't be easy for us if we all of a sudden converted to like Buddhsim or something haha so he's doing just fine.

Now for some tidbits/comments. I still can't believe that Brynn is basically graduated! That's awesome that she got so many awards and is having a good end to the school year. Be sure to send me pics when she graduates this Friday!!

I love you all so much! Have a great week and don't forget to blink because it will already be June... Almost one year ago I started my mission! The time has flown by! Keep on keepin' on and tell everyone I love them!

с любовью,

старейшина каун

украинская донецкая миссия

The Circle of Knowledge

Privet family!
 

This past week was pretty good, Elder Lambert and I have been working hard to find new investigators because we don't really have any doing progress right now. Basically besides Akbar we had nothing haha. We found three good contacts this week though so hopefully they turn into something good for us. We have been using one of our finding tools with the Book of Mormon and walking around with a box that says "Free book with a promise" (the same way that we found Akbar) and giving out the old translation. It's one of our most effective ways to find people on the street I think.
 

The main highlight of this week though was having a Zone Conference with President and Sister Lawrence. President Lawrence is the President of the Europe East Area and he and his wife served as mission presidents 10 years ago in the Novosibirsk Mission where President and Sister Gibbons are right now actually. He was then called two years ago to be a Seventy and preside over this area of the world. It was an amazing conference. He talked about what makes a mission successful and also talked about setting righteous goals. I haven't been the best at setting personal goals on my mission but he gave us some awesome advice and I'm excited to apply it! After the conference we had interviews with him and mine went well. He's coming back in a month with Ronald A. Rasband so I'm sure it will be another great conference. And his wife Sister Lawrence is basically a scriptorian and knows the scriptures inside and out, it was amazing. She taught us about the scattering and gathering of the Ten Tribes and I understood it much better than before. And then during interviews all of us just sat around her and asked questions about the gospel that we've been wondering and she just answered them one right after another with the scriptures and quotes from memory from apostles and prophets. It was insane, my mind was blown! I have several new topics that I want to study now. I was wondering as I listened to her answer questions and talk about the gospel how it must've been to learn from the Savior. Crazy to think about. After my mission I have so much stuff I want to study. I just hope I have time!
 

Also this past week there was a talent show in Saltovka Branch. I played a snare drum solo on my practice pad and they found some african drums so me and Elder Lambert played a little drum battle on them. I can't play drums anymore haha. I've lost my touch but it's all good because after mission I'll find it again.
 

And yesterday Akbar received the Aaronic Priesthood, it was awesome! He's doing good, really busy with his school right now but he comes to several activities each week and all of the members love him. To answer your question about having interview with General Authority or something, I've never heard of that and neither have any missionaries here. So it's probably just a rumor. If he was supposed to then it's a little too late now haha.
 

And now for some tidbits/comments. Dad if you haven't sent that package yet then I have one more request to put in it and that is a book called Russian Learner's Dictionary by Nicholas Brown. Elder Lambert has it right now and it's a good book to study out of. And this upcoming Friday is transfer calls so I'll tell you what happens here. I have a feeling I might get transferred but maybe not. We'll see!
 

I love you all very much and I hope you all have a great week! Keep on keepin' on and don't forget to pray!


с любовью,

старейшина каун

украинская донецкая миссия

An Amazing Week in Saltovka!

Privet family!

It was awesome just talking with you on Skype!! I love you all so very much and I'm grateful for the opportunity that we just had to do so. It sounds like everything's going good at home. Good luck with the end of year stuff and staying sane haha. It will all go by very quickly so don't forget to blink!

Here's my thoughts about Akbar's baptism.

Akbar's baptism was amazing this past Saturday! I never thought I'd end up baptizing a Muslim here in Ukraine but it happened! Words can't really describe my feelings. I am so happy for Akbar and his desire to follow Jesus Christ. He was truly prepared to listen to the gospel and Elder Lambert and I were blessed to find him. The gospel has brought a new light into his life and he has experienced a mighty change in his heart. I will never forget this whole experience of meeting and teaching Akbar. He is one of the Lord's elect who has found the truth and I am so grateful that we got to play a small part in his conversion. The Lord works in mysterious ways and there are always people who are searching for something more in life, we just have to find them! I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers and loves us more than we can imagine. I love him and my Savior, Jesus Christ, with all of my heart. This work is marvelous and I know it is true.

I love you all very much. Have a great week and keep on keepin' on! Always remember that Heavenly Father is just a prayer away.

с любовью,

старейшина каун

украинская донецкая миссия

Am I Dreaming?

Privet family!
 

Well this past week has gone by pretty quick! We met with Akbar every day and he's doing awesome. I can't remember how much I've told you about him so here is his story basically.
 

Akbar Davoodlou is 35 and grew up in Tehran, Iran. His dad wasn't the best example for him and his mom was a devout Muslim, so he followed her example and practiced being Muslim. After eight years of hardcore Muslim practice he decided that being Muslim just wasn't right. He didn't like how the government in Iran ruled over everything, including religion, and he was sick of many people taking it way too far, like when 9/11 happened. He started to think about the possibility of Christianity. He has always loved Jesus Christ but just hasn't known anything about him really, other than seeing Passion of the Christ. So determined to go to a free country, he decided to come to Ukraine four years ago because America is very expensive to come to, especially for an Iranian. He has a love for languages and started learning Russian. He told us that "something was just pulling him to Ukraine." About one year ago his mother died. He took it very hard and turned to Ukraine for help, starting to drink and fall into depression. He told us this story that happened to him one month ago. He was pretty sick of life and got really drunk. He said he wanted to kill himself. He knew the whole time that he shouldn't be drinking but he did anyway. His mother hated alcohol (his father was an alcoholic) and he knew that he was in trouble. He started to cry and pray to God for forgiveness. He didn't pray like Muslims do though, he just prayed to God. After a while he fell asleep and had a dream. In his dream he saw his mother and he tried to approach and hug her. She refused to talk to him because he was drunk and so he was devastated. He woke up several times just crying and would start praying again and then fall asleep into the same dream. This happened on and off through the night until it was morning. In the morning he prayed again and this time he doesn't know why but he prayed in the name of Jesus Christ. He asked God to "please send angels to save me."
 

A few days after this Akbar saw two young men wearing white shirts and ties on the street. We were passing out the old translation of the Russian Book of Mormon for free. He walked by and we didn't talk to him because he was in a group of friends and there were lots of people walking by. But then he walked back to us and asked us what we were doing and then if we knew English. We said "yes of course!" and then told him about English class. We got his number and he said he was interested in English. A whole week went by and we didn't call him because we didn't have English set up in Saltovka yet. So then the next week we called him and invited him to English in Center Branch. He came, absolutely loved it, and wanted to know more. Two days after on Sunday we met with him, got to know him, and then on the following Thursday asked him to baptized. He said yes! Then he came to Church, absolutely loved it and met tons of members, it was amazing! And this puts us to last week now. We met with him everyday and on Monday had an awesome lesson about the Restoration. On Tuesday we followed up and he said he prayed about it and knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon was true! I was on a split with Elder Klestrop one of our Zone Leaders, and it was an amazing lesson. We talked about it that night and he told me that we should think about baptizing him as soon as possible haha because he is just ready. Elder Lambert and I both prayed about whether or not to baptize him early and on our next lesson with him we just both felt the Spirit tell us that he's ready. We asked him his thoughts about it and he also wanted to be baptized sooner. So basically this Saturday, May 12, at 1:00, Akbar is being baptized!!!!! We are so happy for him and for this HUGE change he's making in his life! He wants it so bad and knows what he has to do. He realizes that he's probably one of the first Muslims to convert to the LDS church in Ukraine (or maybe even in general) and is so happy that he found it. He doesn't want to go back to Iran because he doesn't have anything there for him so he's not really sure what's next but he is super excited about his new life! And he doesn't want lots of people to know that he has changed his religion because apparently in Iran if people find out then he could be killed. He says he's not afraid of death though and he calls baptism "the perfect way to Jesus Christ." Akbar refers to us as "his brothers sent from God." He is a true friend to us. Words really can't describe how I feel at this time. We have truly been a part of a miracle. I know that God answers prayers and that he truly loves each and every one of his children. And I know that only through this gospel can we be truly happy. So next week I'll tell you all about Akbar's baptism and how everything goes!
 

Also this past week we went to a baptism with Akbar and he really enjoyed it. A little black girl in Saltovka got baptized and it was a great baptismal service. Akbar was a little nervous but now he's just excited for his baptism. He was even telling members there that "next Saturday's my turn!" And he even fasted this weekend about his baptism and came to Church again yesterday. He met the District President and one of his counselors. Everyone was surprised that he's getting baptized but they're all so happy for him. He calls Church a big family. He is doing great and we're just so happy to have met him! I don't know what else to say!
 

And now for some comments/tidbits. Thanks for the recipe, we'll try it out this week. I'm wondering if you could send me a recipe for choc. chip cookies and oatmeal raisin. Elder Lambert and I have been cooking a lot haha. And I am very excited to talk to everyone on Skype! I was thinking though that we should just do like 10 min each and then 30 min together. That would be swell. It sounds like everyone's doing good at home. Pretty busy but good. I'm glad to hear it. Just keep on keepin' on. I love you all so much and I know that Heavenly Father loves you too. Have a great week and I'll SEE you soon!!
 

с любовью,

старейшина каун

украинская донецкая миссия
 

ps- pics are me with Akbar, a random temple I found on my split, and last week's picture from district meeting with Pres. Campero