THE OFFICE - WEEK 8

Privet family!

It's been another quick week here, can't believe it's time to write again. Things didn't go exactly as planned for us this past week (we wanted to achieve more of our goals) but I had some great experiences that I'd like to share with you. I'll start off with Vladimir. We met with him and taught him the Law of Chastity. He has no problems with it because he's already been living it for forty years haha so he committed to continue to live it no questions asked. Unfortunately he wasn't able to make it to Church yesterday, we were bummed. Saturday night we even made banana bread for him to give to him at Church because last week he gave us some pears from his pear tree. SO after Church we called him and asked if we could stop by and give him something. He said yes, we got his address, and then stopped by. It was a very humbling experience to go to his house. He was ashamed to have us over because he lives in poor conditions. He, like many older Ukrainians, is on pension and receives money from the government but it's not enough. We sat down and talked and he told us lots of things about his life that we didn't know. He has had many trials in life because of unfortunate events but through it all he has trusted in God and lived by faith. He has an amazing testimony of faith and how it gives us power to live our lives each day. With everything he's gone through he's never been angry at God, but grateful instead for his life and family. This upcoming week we will hope to have his baptismal interview. Everything is looking OK for August 11. I'm very excited for him, he deserves all the blessings that Heavenly Father has ready for him. I'm grateful for the small part that I can play in God's plan for him.

We went on a split with the APs this past week. I went with Elder Mironchenko (this is my third split with him now, 2 in Cold Mountain) It didn't turn out as planned because we had to help President with some things for the majority of our time but it was a great split though. We got talking about how sometimes on the mission we lose sight of our purpose as missionaries because there's so much that goes on and we can do better at remembering what our main purpose here is- to teach the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, find people ready and help them come to the waters of baptism. I re-read my call letter and found that many promises written there have been fulfilled already on my mission. One is that my knowledge and testimony of the restored gospel has grown so much, as well as a better understanding for the teachings of Jesus Christ. Another is that I am more happy than I ever have been before because I'm a part of this great work. Nothing I did before my mission really compares to this. And something that really stood out as I read was that this work is a "labor of love" that everyone truly is called of God to do. A mission isn't fun and games for two years, it's pretty far from that. Every day is a labor and while here we really learn through our labors and hard work how to love everything in our lives, especially the people we serve. I have developed a greater love for these people since I first got here and am very grateful that I can serve them. I am also grateful for your love to me and for all that you do for me.

And on Saturday many missionaries in Donetsk got to participate in an Institute activity here. It was like a scavenger hunt but with missionary work. We went off in threesomes and went to different parts of Donetsk (parks, statues, etc) and had to pass out so many invites or talk to so many people. My group was Elder Harrison and Brother Orlov. He works upstairs in the office and is in charge of Institute in Ukraine. He served a mission in Provo and is a pretty cool guy. So we spent some time with him and it was awesome to see how he talked with people on the street and tied the gospel into whatever he was talking about. It helps that he knows Russian haha but I learned a lot from this activity about finding people and tying in the gospel. I'm really excited for after my mission when I can just talk in English and share the gospel haha. Russian makes things a little more difficult. But all in all, it was a cool activity and I heard after that they're trying to make it a district activity and have all the members go out in groups talking to people. So stay tuned in the future if that happens.

Now for some comments/tibits. The shirt I'm wearing in that pic was from Elder Rooney. Not sure who it is, just a spare shirt he had in the apartment. I didn't know that the Olympics started on Friday... that's really cool about the percussion performances, I'll need to check those out after the mission. Keep me updated about the Olympics. It sounds like the ward is doing good, lots of changes going on. And I'm glad that you're learning a lot from the Book of Mormon, it truly is Another Testament of Jesus Christ. There is so much we learn from it every time we read, I know this is true. I'm reading in Russian right now and am almost to Alma. It's amazing to read in a different language because you learn the same concepts but with a different approach. It's awesome. And last but not least, I got a response from the U and they said don't worry about coming home early, just come home at normal time and everything will be OK. So I feel that this is an answer to my prayer which means I'll be seeing you JULY 23, 2013! In about one year from now, crazy to think about. It will fly by so don't blink.

I love you very much family and am thankful for all that you do for me. I know the Church is true. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, as well as the Bible. I know that Christ lives. His gospel has been restored. What marvelous truths these are!! Have a great week and I'll talk to you later!

с любовью,

старейшина каун

украинская донецкая миссия

They Live on Which Floor?!

Privet cemya, kak oo vas dela? Ya ochen rad slishat, shto vsyo horosho oo vas. Menye kazhetsa, shto Bog na samom dele blagoslavliyaet vas potomy, shto On voisteny loobit vas. Spasibo za vashi molitvie i loobov ko menye. Ya vas loobloo!

Translation: What's up family, how are you doing? I'm glad to hear that all is well with you. It seems to me that God really blesses you because He loves you. Thank you for your prayers and love to me. I love you!

This past week was awesome. I learned so much and had some great experiences. To start off, here's an update on Vladimir. We only met with him on Tuesday and we had a new member with us named Brat Trunov. The Trunov family is really cool and very strong in the gospel. We had hoped to teach him about tithing and fast offerings but instead talked again about receiving an answer about the Book of Mormon. Brat Trunov explained to him how each truth we learn through prayer becomes a foundation on which we can build and learn more. He also shared his testimony with him about how he came to know that the church was true. He has been a member since the mid-90s and he said that for the first several years he was only going on faith! He just felt it was true because he felt the spirit testify to him that it was but he hadn't received that conviction. And even after he joined the church he still went to other churches to compare doctrines and stuff. He met with the JWs a lot and said that while he was meeting with them everything just made sense about the Book of Mormon and that it had to be true because of their strange doctrines. But the basis of the story is that at first we don't know everything we need to about the church but through our faith we learn and grow. It wasn't the lesson we had planned but hey, now Brat Trunov and Vladimir are pals so all is well in Zion haha. We still need to teach him tithing, fasting, and the law of chastity before baptism, and then just review the plan of salvation and gospel of Jesus Christ. He's doing good though, all is looking in order for August 11! The next thing I had this week was my interview with President. We talked about happiness and my progress since first getting here and about how the Lord has truly been helping me to grow. It seems to me that ever since I left my greenie area I've grown a lot. I've had lots of experiences with different companions and investigators and the mission itself has truly become a different place than it was last September. All of these things together have helped me to learn and grow and really understand my purpose as a missionary better. Every day that we're given is a blessing from God given to us to bless the lives of others. I can't really explain all my thoughts but it's just really cool to look back and see progression on the mission. I'm happy because I am a missionary and am in this mission. It is truly the mission that I signed up for in the pre-earth life. And I'm happy that I still have time left on the mission and can continue to grow everyday. I also talked to President about my release date. Our group's date has been changed to July 23. Some missionaries in my group are coming home a transfer early to get ready for school and stuff because school will start very soon after this date. I was thinking that I will want to get back early enough to get back into the swing of things and also get things set in stone with my scholarships. And I'll probably want to get back early enough to do drumline since that's part of the scholarship as well. I've been praying and I feel that I should come home one transfer early, which would be June 11. President said that he agrees and that school and scholarships are important. I just need to find out exactly how everything can work out so he gave me permission to write an email to the U (probably to Danny) and see what he says. I'll keep you posted on the status of everything of course. It could turn out that coming home at the normal release date would still be okay but I feel it would be better to come home June 11. I'll see what I hear from the U and tell you more.

The main highlight of this week though was Zone Conference on Friday. It was a great conference. The mission just keeps getting better and better. You may have remembered me saying that our mission baptism goal this year is 300. This turns out to be every companionship having a baptism every month. I prayed when we first set this goal to know if it really was what God wanted from us and I received an answer that it was. This was at the time that President Lawrence came and visited the mission. As of this week, the goal has been changed to 90 baptisms. President, the APs and ZLs all talked about the 300 goal and decided that we needed to change it. They prayed about it and came up with 90. It is more reasonable and I feel that we can achieve it. As a result of the 300 goal though, the mission changed 180 degrees. We became more unified, we learned to sacrifice and value our time better, and we learned to rely on the Lord. But now that we have the goal of 90, our efforts can't stop, we've just got to keep going strong as if we'll achieve the 300. We're at 28 right now but we've been having more and more each month. I truly believe that we will achieve it by the end of this year. The focus of this conference was about how we can find new investigators and work better with members. The amazing senior couples of the mission all taught parts of Preach my Gospel and came up with ideas that we are going to start using, especially about teaching members how to be missionaries and giving them ideas about how to share the gospel. I'm really excited to start doing this because I feel up to this point on my mission that I haven't been the best at working with members. But it's never too late to start. These ideas for teaching will really help the members. I can't wait to see the results! And I am going to apply all this stuff to when I get home and share the gospel with everyone I already should have. Basically Zone Conference was amazing. The mission is truly led by the Spirit.

We had a pretty crazy moving experience as a district on Saturday haha. Elders Rooney and Moss have been looking for a piano to have in their apartment and they found a member who had one and told us that we could come and move it. The only problem was that the member lived on the 9TH FLOOR of the apartment building so we moved it down 9 floors, it was insane! And then we rented a moving truck and moved it up 3 floors to their apartment. We waited a while for the truck to come and we decided to play the piano in the street. It was pretty cool and lots of people stopped and just asked what we were doing so were able to talk about missionary work and also invite them to the Brallier's concert that was the same day. There're always missionary opportunities around us, we just need to find them. Moving the piano though was definitely one of those experiences I won't forget on my mission. I'll show you vids when I get back it was crazy haha. By the way, the moving truck cost 64 grieven, $8. After we moved that piano we had to move the office piano to the branch except this one was way easier. We then attended the Brallier's concert at the branch. It was a great concert, very professional. I found out that Sister Brallier taught flute at BYU and Elder Brallier sung musical theater all over. They sung Russian classical pieces and the piano player from Kharkov branch played some piano pieces as well. At the end of the concert they played some music about Joseph Smith and other LDS hymns. The turnout was awesome and Vladimir was able to come and enjoyed it very much. Their concerts have been a success and they're going to go to the Kiev mission now and play in a few cities.

Now for some comments/tidbits. Sounds like everything's good at home. I have a request for the package you're sending me - send me several pairs of new socks because most of the ones I have are getting worn! Other than that though everything else is good. I love you all! Have a great week and keep on keepin' on!

с любовью,

старейшина каун

украинская донецкая миссия

I Missed You Elder Harrison

Privet family!

Another week has come and gone, as well as another transfer. I am now starting my eighth transfer, it's pretty crazy to believe. Sixteen transfers is a whole mission, fifteen if a missionary comes home one early for school or other reasons. So I'm getting up there but not quite yet. This past week was pretty crazy because Elder Harrison went to Bulgaria which left me in charge of stuff in the office and the area. I also served with two different companions so that was pretty interesting as well. Monday night we went to a FHE with a family in the branch. They are the Grebnev family and are pretty cool. The dad is less-active but still participates in FHE, they have a son who will be a Priest this month and a daughter going into young women. They said we can come as often as we want so we'll probably go there again. After this I started my first mini-split. From Monday night to Thursday I served with Elder Withers. He is in his fourth transfer and found out Thursday that he's training a greenie! President likes having young trainers. My time with him was mostly spent in the office doing work because we work Tuesdays and Wednesdays. But we taught two lessons as well and did some finding on the streets. He's pretty cool and is from Idaho. Maybe I'll serve around him someday in the future, we'll see. Thursday was transfer meeting and the office was pretty insane haha. Lots of missionaries coming in to be transferred, lots of packages and mail to give out and send to different parts of the mission, passports needed to be copied and scanned, Sister Irina running around and yelling at me in Russian haha. Our district now has a new set of elders- Elders Rooney and Moss! I'm excited to have Moss in my district again. He was in my district in Saltovka for one week and then there was that whole emergency transfer thing with the Armenian elder. But, we have been brought together again. I've been blessed to serve a lot of my mission around him and see him. He's definitely one of my best friends on the mission. Elder Rooney is a pretty awesome elder. He's from California and is half Persian. He is the oldest elder in the district by two transfers. The rest of us stayed- Elder Harrison and I and Elder Robison and Bolingbroke as our ZLs. Remember when I served with Elder Robison for one transfer in Cold Mountain and then he got transferred? Well he's been in this area as a ZL ever since then. Basically forever haha. Our district is awesome though, it's going to be a great transfer. So lets see, after transfer meeting Thursday I got a new temporary companion who is a greenie. His trainer was also in Bulgaria for the visa trip so he stayed with me until Saturday night when everyone got back from Bulgaria. His name is Elder Kumferman and is also from Idaho. His dad actually teaches Russian at BYU-I but he didn't learn any Russian before coming here. So I was a trainer for a couple days, that was fun. I took him finding for his first time on the street and on his first lessons. It would be fun to train, maybe someday I'll do it for real. On my little split with him we met with a member family in the branch who are translators so it was a good first lesson for him to have because it was all English and we taught Vladimir so he had a Russian lesson as well. The translators are named Bitali and Olga and they have a newborn baby and young girl. We talked about the importance of the Restoration with them and challenged them to pray about someone with whom they can share the message of the Restoration. It really got me thinking about just how important it is to know and understand that the church was restored and that a restoration was needed. I was talking about this with Elder Harrison after he got home and he brought up a cool idea about this. Everything in the gospel kind of relates to a restoration. After this life we'll be restored to life with Heavenly Father, the life that we left to come here onto earth. After our missions we'll be restored to our old lives that we left for two years. As we repent we're restored and cleansed. The church itself was restored back to its original state. This idea has been blowing my mind haha.

Time for a new paragraph. As far as investigators go, we really only met with Vladimir this week. And I've told you a little about his progress already talking back and forth but here it is again. We met with him twice this week and both times we just felt he wasn't ready to be baptized just yet. Wednesday I asked him if he's specifically prayed about the Book of Mormon and he said no so we committed him to do so by Saturday and then we'd talk about it. He didn't pray specifically it turned out and he still kind of thinks that it's a really interesting book but doesn't know if it's true or not. He is sometimes forgetful so every lesson we remind him what we learn if the Book of Mormon is true (Church is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet, we have a prophet on the earth again today). He is a really sincere man and I know he'll receive an answer soon. We have moved his date to August 11 and are going to work towards that date now. He says he wants to be baptized and I think now understands better the importance of receiving an answer before baptism. He always has lots of questions so teaching him is sometimes hard because we're trying to answer questions/teach him at the same time but he's doing good. This week one of the senior couples is doing a free concert (they've been doing them in every branch building around the mission) and Vladimir wants to come so hopefully all will work out with that. I hear the concert's amazing (He is a professional baritone singer, she played flute in a symphony, and they're playing with the professional piano player from center Kharkov branch) I'll tell you how everything goes. I'm excited to hear a concert, it should be awesome.

Now for some comments/tidbits. I passed my 10 month mark in Ukraine on Saturday. I've hit the double digits now, it's pretty crazy. The elders who got back from Bulgaria passed me a hello from Elder Seymour. They got kicked out of Turkey for a few months and need new visas or something. So they're back in Bulgaria for now. From what they got from Gerrit members in Turkey have been teaching them Turkish and the work is pretty crazy there. About 90% are Muslims and he said it's a very Middle-eastern country.

Family, I love you all very much and am grateful for all that you do for me. I wish you a great week and tell everyone I love them. Talk to you next week!

с любовью,

старейшина каун

украинская донецкая миссия

Moroni 8:3

Where Did The Transfer Go?

Privet moyu cemyu! Ya rad slishat shto vso horosho oo vas!

Well, it has been another fast week here in the office. As you might see from the title, I didn't get a transfer call so I'll be here in the office for another 6 weeks. BUT Elder Harrison didn't get one either, so we'll be together for one more. I'm happy we get to serve together again, he's an awesome missionary. So this also means that I will most likely be here in the office for two more transfers (beginning of October) because they wouldn't transfer both missionaries out and have two new ones come in who don't know anything but we'll just wait and see I guess. So yeah, that is the current state of transfers and stuff. This upcoming week is going to be crazy because Elder Harrison is going to Bulgaria tomorrow with his group and there is a group of elders going home tomorrow so until transfer day this week I will be serving with Elder Withers, who is in his third transfer because his comp is going home. And then after transfers I will serve with the new elders getting transferred into Center Donetsk who I don't know yet until Saturday night when Harrison gets back. So I will be in charge of stuff here in the office for a week. I don't really know how to do everything and there's tons of stuff to be done with President's finances so it will be fun to figure out haha. But everything will work out somehow, it always does.

So last Wednesday we met with Vladimir and talked about baptism and his decision. HE DECIDED THAT HE WANTS TO GET BAPTIZED!!!!! After he told us his answer he asked "What suggestions do you have for me?" haha so we explained that there's still some things to talk about and some commandments that he needs to follow but that as he does he will be ready for baptism. We set his date for the end of this month, July 28. And then we taught him the word of wisdom. On his teaching record it says that he had problems living this law when it was taught to him because he loves to drink black tea. But at the end of the lesson when we asked him to live the word of wisdom he basically quit right on the spot and said he'd live it! We also met with him on Saturday and he brought his daughter with him. He has always told us that he has difficulties at home with his family but he'll never tell us why. Well, it turns out that his daughter is an invalid and can't live by herself so he and his wife take care of her. I'm not really sure what disease she has but things make more sense now. He said that everything he does basically depends on her so sometimes he can't come to Church but we just promised him that everything will be fine as long as he continues to put God first. He was able to come to church again yesterday and really loves coming. The topic yesterday was missionary work and he thought it was pretty amazing. Things are looking good for the end of the month with him. We have been blessed to find him and teach him. Other than this news our past week was full of finding people on the streets and working in the office. Several lessons fell through for us so we didn't achieve as many as we had hoped but we'll see what happens this upcoming week.

Now for some comments/tidbits. I'm glad that your 4th of July was fun. To celebrate here me and Elder Harrison said the national anthem and then there were fireworks from something that night so it was pretty sweet haha. (People randomly do fireworks here because there aren't really any laws about those) so yeah. Happy 4th!

I wish you all a great upcoming week! Keep on keepin' on and I'll talk to you next week!

с любовью,

старейшина каун

украинская донецкая миссия

ps- the picture is cheese soup from the office. except that yellow stuff is not cheese, that is oil. mmmm

The Day Has Come

Privet family!

I still refuse to believe it but the calendar doesn't lie - I have officially been on my mission for ONE YEAR! The time has gone by very quickly. I look back and just see a blur of everything combined together. I still remember pretty clearly the day I started my mission. We went to Kneader's, it was rainy, Gerrit was my host, and it was a day of mixed emotions. It's so weird that that was a year ago. Where did the time go? I still remember walking into the MTC and meeting Elder Moss and my district. I remember finally leaving the MTC and arriving in the mission field, meeting Elder Schoen and being a greenie. It's so weird to think about. I have been doing lots of thinking and reflecting over this past week and I am not the same Elder Keown that you saw off. I have grown so much in the past year and I owe it all to you guys, my Father in Heaven, my Savior Jesus Christ, and my leaders and good friends. My testimony of the restored gospel and of this marvelous work has grown tremendously. I know without a doubt that the Church has been restored on the earth once more and that it is the same church that Jesus Christ organized when He lived on the earth. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. It is, just like the Bible, the word of God, and contains the fullness of the gospel. Reading and living by its teachings brings us closer to God and Jesus Christ. I know that only through the restored gospel can people truly be happy in this life and in the life to come. I know this because I am happy, you are happy and receive blessings, and because I've literally seen the gospel change peoples' lives. I know that God lives and answers our prayers. I know that He always puts us around those people with whom we can grow and learn the most from at our time of need. And I know that this work is truly marvelous. The field is white already to harvest. My sickle is half over but I'm only just starting it seems like. I know that I truly have been called of God to be a missionary in the Ukraine Donetsk Mission. I feel so blessed to be a part of it and play a small role in God's plan for the people of Ukraine. Although sometimes I don't realize it, the Lord's hand is in my life everyday. The knowledge, growth, and experiences I've already had will be with me forever. I am eternally indebted to my Savior for this opportunity to be here. My life will never be the same again. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. I love this work, I love my Savior, and I'm excited for the next year of my life here. I have no idea what's in store for me but I know that as long as I'm faithful and obedient that I'll learn the things that God has prepared for me.

So besides me hitting my year mark, some other crazy things happened this week. To start off, Elder Goloshokov is no longer with us. There was an elder that had to go home because of medical stuff from Cold Mountain and so they sent him to Cold Mountain to be with the other missionary there. It's kinda weird, I trained him for like two and a half weeks and now he's getting trained again in my greenie area! We're kind of relieved to not be with him anymore just because it was hard to work in the office and have him with us. There was nothing for him to do and it wasn't fair for him to just have to sit around so it all worked out. I'll probably get the change to serve around him again so we'll see. And that same day we found out he was getting transferred up to Kharkov (President let us know that morning haha) the area Patriarch showed up ready to give patriarchal blessings so members and missionaries who didn't have them. So the office was pretty busy, President was doing interviews and he put me in charge of filling out their recommends so I wrote their Russian names in English and then the patriarch came down and said we had to redo them and have a Russian write them haha so it was just a crazy day. And then we had to get tickets for all of the missionaries going back to Kharkov and there weren't any so we split up for the night and I stayed with two of the mini-missionaries who are serving in Sumy right now so that was fun. Basically from this day I learned that I don't want to serve as mission president. One decision and your day becomes crazy! But all worked out in the end, it always does. Also this past week we had a miracle day and taught 4 lessons! Somehow one of the members found out we were going to a less-active family and called us to see if we could do a home teaching split with him. So we said of course! So we were able to visit two families and it was awesome. It was a really different atmosphere teaching a less-active on a home teaching visit compared to an investigator lesson. We just had a normal conversation in Russian and it went good. I gave a short spiritual thought and the older guy I was with just talked with him about life. We're definitely going to start working with the branch more on this and getting people out to do their home teaching.

And a little about investigators now. You probably remember Vladimir? He is an older man, around 62, former investigator. Well, we met with him last Wednesday and invited him to be baptized. He said that he wants to think about it and decide this Wednesday. He has finished reading 1 Nephi and wants to find an answer. We also invited him to church and he didn't seem like he wanted to come because he hasn't come the whole transfer. Well, HE CAME YESTERDAY and loved it! So he's doing great progress, we're proud of him. And we found a new investigator this week named Aleksei, he was also a former investigator. We're meeting him tomorrow. Nice guy, 23ish, knows a little English. Things are going good in our area. There's a lot to be done and there's lots of new people to meet with.

Really quick now, comments/tidbits. And, this Friday is transfer calls again! The transfer has disappeared. Elder Harrison is probably out and I'll be getting a new comp here in the office. And don't light any fireworks on the 4th, ok?

I love you all and wish you a great week! Tell everyone I love them and keep on keepin' on!

с любовью,

старейшина каун

украинская донецкая миссия