How Is It Already September?!

Privet family!

Thanks for all of your emails to me, it really means a lot to hear from you and feel your love. This past week I had some great experiences that I'd like to share with you. First off we have been meeting with a former investigator named Aleksei. Elder Harrison and I met with him at the beginning of June but stopped meeting with him because he wasn't going anywhere and fell off the face of the earth. I can't remember if I've talked about him or not but he is around 25, is a web designer, and has perfect english. He has been an investigator for several years but hasn't really acted on what missionaries have told him. Last Saturday he prayed with us for the first time and it was an amazing prayer. Very humble and sincere. We then met with him Wednesday and Friday this week. Wednesday we found out he read the wrong chapter assigned so we had to change our lesson plan. We've been focusing on faith and what that means exactly but have noticed that he really isn't interested in reading the Book of Mormon because he doesn't like reading in general. So Elder Nuzman and I during comp. study had the idea come to mind to make an equation how to get answers to prayers using Moroni 10:4- sincere heart, real intent, faith in Christ. We taught this to him on Friday and he liked the lesson but his problem is that he just doesn't feel the same spirit at home compared to meeting with us so he doesn't have any desire to act. We talked about this in our district meeting and we also decided to fast for him to know how to better help him. We have decided to teach him the Word of Wisdom this week and start following up and keeping in touch with him everyday. From this we're hoping to see his real intent show and we can establish a better relationship with him as well through daily contact. So I'll tell you how this all goes next week. He is our main investigator at the time. All the contacts we were hoping to meet with didn't work out, we were pretty sad. We were hoping to meet with a couple from English but they haven't been answering their phone and the same goes with everyone else. Often times we meet cool people on the street who seem interested but then they just turn out to not be ready. I'm still trying to figure this out on my mission- how you can have amazing contacts that turn into another number in the area book. But nonetheless, we are faithful we will find new investigators this week.

We met with Vladimir on Thursday and he is doing alright. His family still isn't too interested in the gospel. By family I mainly mean his wife because his daughter is autistic so will have a free ride to heaven. His wife isn't very faithful but he is, so I wonder sometimes how they worked everything out up to this point. He has been coming to church regularly, except last week he didn't make it because he's getting the flu. After the lesson we asked him if he wanted a blessing and he said yes so I was able to give him a Priesthood blessing of health and it was an awesome experience. This is the first blessing I've given in Russian on my mission. I have anointed oil several times but never given the actual blessing. I don't really remember what I said but I know it was what he needed to hear. And he came to Church yesterday and is feeling fine so it's a miracle!

So about a month ago I went on a split with Elder Moss and it was a Wednesday night to Thursday night. Wednesday night while finding on the streets we stopped a younger kid named Artour (Arthur) and it was the fastest contact of my life. It seriously went like this: "Hey can we talk to you for a minute? ok. We're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we have an awesome message about how God restored His church on the earth today through a living prophet. And we even have twelve apostles, just how Jesus Christ set up His church. Would you be interested to know more about this? ok. What's your number? Great, when can you meet? tomorrow. Awesome, well we'll call you tomorrow Artour. See you then." This happened in about one minute, it was super quick. So Elder Moss and I sure enough met him the next day and had a good first lesson with him. Well since then, he has come to a service activity, several family home evenings, and is good friends with one of the members now. He has been meeting with Elder Moss and Rooney and this past week they were able to put him on date for September 14th!!!!!! I was so pumped to hear that he's getting baptized, it's just amazing! My testimony grows more and more about the fact that no effort is wasted, ever. The mission is on fire right now, it's not the same mission I came into almost a year ago. There were three baptisms this past weekend, including a couple! which brings the count to 38. AND 15 are on date at the moment. The Lord is blessing everyone for their efforts and desires, our companionship included. We feel that sometime soon we will find someone prepared to listen to the message and actually want to read and pray. We just need to have the faith to find.

Something else I wanted to include are some topics I studied this week. In Jesus the Christ I'm reading about parables and there is a detailed description for each one. I studied the wheat and the tares and had no idea that it's in D&C 86 as well because it's so important. And D&C 50:24 which talks about light is linked to this parable because we all need to gather light until the very end and we gather light by keeping covenants and living the gospel. Then at the last day we will be as the wheat that is gathered first while the wicked tares are left on earth to burn. Something else I started to study is blessings promised in my patriarchal blessing about my mission that I haven't seen yet and what I need to do to be ready for them. I'm not done yet but I am learning a lot already. There's so much to study and not enough time! I have definitely learned to love studies on my mission. There's just no substitute for studying the scriptures everyday and writing down the things learned. They are truly written for us.

Now for some comments/tidbits. That's interesting that Elder Welch is learning Ukrainian. Here there's no need to learn Ukrainian because Russian is the dominant language. Members know Ukrainian but speak Russian. And apparently there's been lots of protests going on about which language should be the national one spoken here but I haven't seen anything. I'll have to look that up after I get home. That's awesome you're doing a study group with the Dent's, tell them hello for me. The Book of Mormon is amazing, I'm sure you'll learn tons. Mormon 8:35 has been coming up a lot this week. It truly has been written for our day. And I'm keeping my eyes open for my package! Hopefully it comes this week. I'll let you know when it arrives.

Well, that's about it for this week. I love you all and pray that all continues to be well for you. God is our literal Father who answers our prayers. Jesus Christ lives and loves us more than we can imagine. What an awesome time to live on the earth- we have the fullness of the gospel! Have a great week and I'll talk to you later!

с любовью,

Старейшина Каун

Украинская Донецкая Миссия

It's Already Transfer 9!

Privet family!

Thank you all for your emails and love. It means so much to me to hear from home and how everything is going. I'm glad to hear that all is well. This last week was crazy as usual. I'll start out by saying who my new companion is- I'm now serving with Elder Nuzman from Draper, Utah! He is in his 5th transfer (my transfer when I first got to Saltovka) and we're getting along great so far. Something interesting about him is that he is a convert and is the only active member in his family. After his mission he plans on getting them active. He was baptized through member missionary work and has a pretty strong testimony of that. He was trained by a native here and his Russian is amazing already. Something we've already started doing is waking up at 5:30 to get extra Russian study in. It's super early but already I've noticed a difference in my language. I have a greater desire to study harder and learn more words (there's always more words to learn haha) Elder Nuzman is a great addition to the office, he knows computers pretty well and catches onto things quickly. We set some good transfer goals together and I'm really excited to achieve them. From Thursday after transfer meeting to Saturday night we were in a threesome with Elder Tadevosyan (elder from Armenia who only knows Russian) because he was going home but didn't have a ticket yet. So it was an interesting weekend/start to the transfer. I really don't like threesomes, they're hard to get stuff done in. But we were able to adapt to the surprise situation and I learned yet again that I can always receive the strength I need from the Lord to do hard things. Elder Nuzman and I were blessed with some miracles already our first few days together. We received seven contacts from finding and we're hoping to meet with all of them this week. We really need some new investigators here so we're faithful that some of these will become new ones! We received one from English night last Friday and we're going to meet with him and his wife tonight. This will be the second time on my mission that I teach a couple. (I taught a couple one time as a greenie but nothing came of it) Also we tracted into a guy who lives under the AP's apartment and wants to meet with missionaries so we'll be meeting him Tuesday night. All of these contacts are just coming up out of nowhere, it's amazing!

Also this week Elder Harrison and I met with Vladimir and taught him about member missionary work. He really loves the idea and is excited to get started. We're still trying to get his family involved in the gospel, it's a work in process. Besides these things that's pretty much my week. Like I said, we have good goals for this transfer and we're faithful that we will see great miracles through our service, we already are.

 

 

Happy 26th Anniversary to you mom and dad! I love you very much, thanks for everything you do for me.

Have a great week everyone! I love you and wish you all the best! Tell everyone hello for me and pass them my love!

с любовью,

Старейшина Каун

Украинская Донецкая Миссия

Where Did The Transfer Go?

Privet family!

Thanks for your emails, love and support from home, it really means a lot. I will start this email off with news about Vladimir - HE GOT THE PRIESTHOOD YESTERDAY! It was awesome, I'm excited for him. Now his home teachers need to start teaching him because the branch wants them to teach him the after baptism lessons, not us. We will probably help a little to start but the branch will teach him in the end. He's getting to know a few more members now so he's doing good. We're still trying to work with his wife and get the branch involved with her. I'll keep you informed as things happen. As far as the rest of our investigators, not a lot happened this past week with them because we weren't able to meet with them. No one seemed to have any time so we will be hoping and praying for some lessons this upcoming week. We met with a less-active family named the Dmirtenko's (I don't remember if I've written about them at all) They are an older couple and have stopped coming to church because of health reasons. They're really nice but just don't come so we're trying to get their home teachers over to them. We also met with Olya and Vitali, the English translators. They are an awesome family, probably my favorite one in the branch. (I'm sending a picture of us with them) We also visited the Grebnev family again, they are great. We're working with everyone we meet with to do their personal missionary plans. Some families are better than others at this but everyone is trying and seeing success.

Also this past week I went on two splits. The first was with Elder Bolingbroke, one of my zone leaders. We mainly just walked the streets while dropping by less-actives, we didn't have any lessons. We did receive a way cool contact so we'll see what happens with him. Elder Bolingbroke is from Layton and is in Elder Harrison's group so one transfer above me. He's an awesome missionary. My other split was with Elder Rooney, Elder Moss's companion. He is from California and is the oldest missionary in our district, two transfers above me. We taught a first lesson to a guy named Vladislav who was just in their phone and were able to put him on date, it was amazing! That's like one of the only times that's ever happened on my mission, putting someone on date the first lesson. So hopefully Rooney and Moss can start working with him more now and get him baptized. We also went finding on the streets as part of our split (we find everyday if you haven't figured that out haha) and got a few good contacts for them. Both splits were great this week.

Now for some comments/tidbits. I forgot to mention last week that transfer calls were coming out Friday. The time has already arrived again, it's crazy. Elder Harrison and Elder Robison both received calls in our district but everyone else is staying. SO this means that this Thursday I will get a new comp here in the office and that I will be the one who's supposed to know everything about the office haha. I'll be in the office for at least one more, but I suppose it's possible to be here for two more transfers so we'll see what happens. I think this has been my favorite district so far on my mission. We are all so close and have learned a lot together, it will be hard seeing two of us go but I'm certain that whoever comes here next transfer will fit in just fine. The Lord has everything worked out. This upcoming week 12 new greenies are coming into the mission which means 12 missionaries will be training, plus those who are already training. This means half the mission will be training next transfer, no joke! I am now one of the older missionaries here, it's really weird. As far as the Colemans go, the Hatches (previous senior couple) taught them everything they knew but we still try to answer questions they have as they're still new here in the office. The weather is getting cooler, definitely not as hot as it has been. And we were told that the water is OK to drink now so we don't have to buy our own anymore. Let's see, every third week in Priesthood they study the George Albert Smith manual so I've been hearing the lessons but I don't always understand everything. What I understand though is that President Smith was an awesome member missionary his whole life. After my mission I am planning on reading all of the teachings of the Prophets manuals and studying those. And Brynn, good luck this week with college! I'll be praying for you. I'm sure that you'll love it!

I love you all very much and continue to pray that all is well with you. Please send everyone my love and thank them for their support. Have a great week and keep on keepin' on!

с любовью,

Старейшина Каун

Украинская Донецкая Миссия

My Friend Vladimir Vovk

Privet family!

So this past week turned out pretty much as we expected - amazing, miraculous, and uplifting, full of hard work and humidity!! Elder Harrison and I achieved many goals we set during the week, including two new investigators and Vladimir's baptism of course! I will start off by talking about this. His baptismal service went just as planned and everything was perfect. It was perfect to have Brother Krasnik baptize him. That's how it should go every time with investigators getting baptized- by a member. Of course the investigator can choose but it's so much better, things go more smoothly. He was able to explain things to Vladimir and comfort him before the service started. And I stood as a witness of the baptism and it was so cool to think that "wow, we found him, taught him, and are now seeing him get baptized" I've been blessed so far on my mission to see the whole process happen with Akbar and Vladimir. It's so amazing how the gospel literally changes people and it all happens according to their faith and desires. Vladimir bore his testimony afterward and he basically said "If we're not on the right path than the path we're on is leading to destruction. We can't live without God. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." He also said that he's been ready for baptism for a while and so was happy to finally be baptized. I don't know if I've mentioned the history of Vladimir that missionaries left with him but here it is. About a year ago sister missionaries here found him and taught him everything. It was Sister Ward and a russian sister (Sister Ward was in my district in Saltovka if you remember) So they taught him everything but then his teaching record said that he got scared of baptism. Fast forward to a year later and I was calling people in the area book and called him. When I called him the phone rang for over a minute and I was about to hang up but then he answered at the last second, remembered the church and missionaries, and was actually able to meet half an hour after that phone call. (That was in June right when I got to the office) So Elder Harrison and I started to meet with him. We had to answer many questions he had and then just basically remind him everything the sisters had taught him. And you know the rest. So this goes to show that no effort is wasted. We read this in Preach My Gospel. It doesn't matter what part of the work in the vineyard you do, the effort isn't wasted. The Lord doesn't forget our efforts, this is an amazing truth. (Hebrews 6:10) So we're sending the two sisters an email that he got baptized and I'm sure that they will love it. And the second half of the baptism happened yesterday. He came to Church and got confirmed! So Vladimir Vovk is now the newest member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Ukraine Donetsk Mission!! I'm so happy for him and grateful for the small role I could play in God's plan for him.

Earlier this week we had another visit from a General Authority, President Per G. Malm. He is the second counselor in the Europe East Presidency. You would recognize him because he has spoken in conference before. We had an awesome zone conference with him and I learned a lot. Something that really stuck out to me what he said was that "We can always trust the feelings of our hearts." It's so cool to be on a mission and hear from General Authorities, hear their testimonies. They testify with the same power and authority that we hold as missionaries. President Malm testified of the truthfulness of the restoration and that Jesus Christ lives. And that he knows these things by the same spiritual witness everyone receives. The mission just keeps getting better. Everyone is more unified and working to take the mission to the next level.

So I mentioned two new investigators. We met a man on the street a week ago and he was interested in English. We gave him a brochure and then he came at the end of church the next day. We then got his phone number and met him last Monday. He brought a friend so we taught them both. THEY REMIND ME EXACTLY OF DIMA AND VOVA FROM COLD MOUNTAIN! Very similar personalities, appearances, concerns, so that's pretty interesting. We've met with them three times during the week. Unfortunately, they haven't had time to read the Book of Mormon and they weren't able to make it to Church. We were pretty bold on our last lesson and explained that only through this church can they receive salvation. Their concerns are basically the same ones that all Ukrainians have. There is one God and it doesn't matter which Church leads you back to him. Who are we to say that through a book they can be saved, and on top of that some new church that is 1800 years younger than their Russian Catholic belief. All we can do is testify and invite. We're faithful that they will be able to read and pray about the message. I'll keep you posted about them.

And last but not least, the new senior couple came into country this week. They are the Coleman couple from Smithfield, UT! They will be permanently here in the office with us and are replacing Elder and Sister Hatch. Elder Harrison and I have been helping them get situated, like going shopping and translating for them. The Hatches are training them in the office and what they don't understand after this week we will have to teach them. So next transfer is going to be an adventure! And Elder Harrison will probably be transferred so that leaves me to help them with stuff and I'm supposed to know everything hahaha. It will be crazy but there's nothing to worry about, everything will turn out OK in the end. Elder Coleman is a convert and the Colemans chose on their papers to come to Ukraine so they're going to be an awesome couple here as most couples refuse calls to come here.

Now for some comments/tidbits. I'm excited to hear there's a push for missionary work in the ward. Use the personal missionary plan I sent you for some ideas maybe. And thanks for being awesome parents to me and helping me to get on a mission. I'm so grateful to be serving here and for the experiences that I have and will have. The Church is true, I know it with all my heart! Have a great week and remember that Heavenly Father is only a prayer away!

с любовью,

старейшина каун

украинская донецкая миссия

Where Am I?

Привет семья, как всё идёт у вас? Спасибо за то, что вы послали мне письма, я всегда рад слышать от вас и видить как Господа постепенно благославляет ваши жизни. Это прекрасно!

Hey family, how is everything going? Thanks for sending me letters, I'm always happy to hear from you and see how the Lord continually blesses your lives. It's awesome!

I also can't believe it's already August. We're already in week four of the transfer, next week transfer calls will come out again. Time is just cruising. This week went by pretty fast, every day is just packed with stuff, whether it's finding, teaching, or working in the office. I need to start off this email by giving you an update about Vladimir. Elder Harrison and I felt like dropping by his house last Tuesday to see how he was doing because he wasn't able to make it to church. We got there and he was outside with his wife. He had us come in and meet her. We've been trying to meet her ever since we first started to teach him but it's never worked out until now. So we met her and she was curious as to how we could help her. I don't know if I've told you this but they have a daughter with autism and they both take care of her even though they're old. Vladimir's wife is in charge of an organization that gives help to those with disabilities so she wanted to know how we could possibly give help to them. She said lots of stuff we didn't understand but we both basically said that we don't really know a lot about this subject but that the branch can help out and we just bore our testimonies to her. She is not very religious at all but after we prayed she said she feels a power behind her so that's a start. We're trying to get the Relief Society president over there to meet her now. Vladimir was able to meet with us on Wednesday. I wasn't on the lesson (I was on a split) but the lesson went good and then Saturday Vladimir had his baptismal interview and passed with flying colors!!! So this Saturday the 11th at 12:00 will be his baptism! Vladimir came to church again yesterday, they announced his baptism, and several members congratulated him it was awesome. And he has chosen a member we've had on our lessons with us to baptize him so pretty much everything's in order for Saturday! I'm so happy for him, he is an amazing man. Teaching him has been very humbling. His example has taught me more than what we've taught him. I have learned from him that worldly materials have very small importance in the grand scheme of things. Money is needed of course but what's important in life is family and growing together in the gospel. He is truly one of the Lord's elect here in Ukraine.

Elder Harrison and I have been doing lots of finding on the streets this week and have been blessed with some good contacts. We are hopeful that this week we can meet with them and get some new investigators, we really need some of those! Basically Vladimir has been our only investigator going anywhere. It's kind of strange, the same thing that happened in Saltovka happened here. We had a good pool of investigators and then one by one they just stopped meeting with us until we were just left with Akbar. So we are in search of more investigators now (but we're always looking for new ones though). We have been meeting with some awesome members in the area and helping them become missionaries. You might remember the My Zion idea that President thought of. Well he has now come up with a Personal Missionary Plan for the members to do missionary work and share the gospel with their friends to be used with My Zion. We are hopeful that in the upcoming weeks the members can give us some referrals from this. The members we've met with in our area so far are the Grebnev family (mom, less-active dad, 16 yr old son, 12 yr old daughter) They're a really cool family, we're working with the dad right now to get him back to church. the Bailey family- their names are Wendell and Tanya. So Wendell is an older guy from America who got a divorce and came here to teach English. He met this lady in the branch (Tanya) who also teaches English and was divorced and they just got married a few weeks ago. They now teach an addiction recovery program after church and actually, a guy that Wendell teaches English to who has been coming to English practice is now meeting with missionaries and is probably going to get baptized! So Wendell is doing some good member missionary work! And the last family is Olya and Vitali Kooshnerova. They are probably my favorite family here. They both know fluent English and are translators and have two young daughters. She also teaches an English Book of Mormon class every week. So we're currently working with these families. I sent you a copy of the personal missionary plan and challenge you all to do it!

Also this past week I went on a split with Elder Moss. I've been blessed to serve around him a lot on my mission so far. We've changed a lot since the MTC and we had a great split. We met a kid who was 18 on the street Wednesday and got his number then taught him the first lesson the next day which usually doesn't happen. It was a good lesson and now he's a new investigator for the other elders so it was a miracle! Also this week we went on a tour of the Donbass Arena which is where the Euro Cup games were played and where the Donetsk soccer team plays. It was a pretty cool experience, I got lots of pictures and am sending a few today. It's like a once in a lifetime experience to do a tour there especially since we can't go there to see games or anything. And this week we celebrated Elder Harrison, Robison, and Bolingbroke's year in Ukraine mark! They are all just a transfer ahead of me so next month will by one year mark here. Crazy stuff!

Now for some comments/tidbits. The weather here has been very hot and humid. Saturday was 100 degrees plus humidity and this week we heard it's going to be like 115 or something. It's basically like being in Hawaii, no joke. I feel like I'm on some island! I don't know how else to explain it. And our air conditioner doesn't work in our apartment so we just have fans but they don't do much haha. So it is a blessing to be in the office during this time of the year - AC and cold water to drink! Now for some other crazy stuff that happened this week. Our fridge stopped working lol. So we called our landlord and he sent some people to come today. They came and after a while said that the part we need isn't made anymore so we probably have to buy a new fridge or something, not sure yet. It's ridiculous. AND yesterday we found out from the APs and Senior Couples that all of the water in Donetsk isn't safe to drink, even from a filter because some radiation/sketchy stuff leaked in the water lol so now we have to buy water to use for brushing teeth, drinking, cooking. But being in the office we have our meals cooked for us so this is a huge blessing. So be thankful you have clean water this week!! I heard this stuff is in the news but we don't watch it obviously so maybe you can look it up and learn more than what I know. I'm glad to hear that all is well at home with you. Tell everyone hello for me. And I'm glad to hear the package made it home safely. I'm excited for your package! This upcoming week is going to be pretty busy but I'll tell you all about it next week, I don't have time to explain now.

I love you all and am thankful for all that you do for me! Have a great week and remember to choose the right!

с любовью,

старейшина каун

украинская донецкая миссия

ps- pics this week are me at the Donbass Arena, some food that Sister Lydia made (that is a purple cabbage and sweet onion salad) and a sign that says "Socialism - the way to a worthy life" Welcome to Ukraine!

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