Time, time, time

Dear Family, 

Well this is so crazy you got to stop mentioning about how much time everyone else has and their flight plans, my companion is trunky enough ok he really isnt trunky. Im excited for the skype call this year implanning on having time to call at about 6 or 7 our time i dont know when that is your time but ya know. We are going to have as much time as last time so expect about 15 min of face time...... 

Well this week was fun we spent the most part of it on exchanges and i was with the greenie and man all i can say is that gree people have got to be the most trunky people in the whole world he is great but wow it was like 4 full days of trunk fest. 

We spent some time this week getting some christmas stuff from the outdoor-market we got a christmastree for our church on wednesday and then we had a family night that night and we made decorations and it was way fun and i have to say that for a gheto tree it looks great. 

Do you think you will be in this area for a while? mom to that question i will give a huge i hope so cause i really love it here in yzhorod it is so much fun we are having such success and i love my companion so ya know how that works i probably wont stay cause thats what the lord does he waits until you really love your area and then he helps you love a new area but i hope i stay. 

Mom i know you want my release date but yeah you will have to wait and that is so weird i could swear that i was on my mission when she left for her mission. Its funny to see that everyone is leaving aroundchristmas i hear that is the best time to leave cause an apostle for sure will be there for christmas.

 How is your new family?Did they come to church? the answer is yes they came to church and they are so awesome they have such potental they came to our family night and had a really fun time it was awesome.  How many men do you have in your group now? Any priesthood holders? yeah we have 1 mel. priesthood holder and 2 adult arr. priesthood holders its great and we will soon have 2 boys with the arr. priesthood. 

Well this week we did alot of prep work for the christmas party and the presents that we are getting for the district here. Im glad that im here for christmas, last christmas was great but this one will be just so much better. 

This week we have a zone conference this week and its funny we were told that we were opening our christmaspackages and well i already did so sorry family but it will still be fun im super excited for christmas and we can figure out the rest when the day comes. I think that i have a google + account and i have a skype thing i think so we will see you in a couple of days so love you all.

Elder Naumann 

Baptism (from 12/2/2013)

Dear Family,

Well we had a really good thanksgiving week there was a baptism of one of our investigators. It was great cause we didnt think that it would happen but all the pieces fell into place and he got baptised and i was lucky enough to baptise him and it was a great experience. We also had a weird thanksgiving probably one of the weirdest of my life. 

So first the reason we didnt think that this baptism wouldn't happen is that this 13 year old kid even though he wanted to be baptized and has good friends as influences he still is a 13 year old kid. The hardest part for him has got to be his sister because she really didnt want him to become a member but thank goodness the parents were totally ok with it. It was cool cause they are both deaf and talking with them was hard but fun it sort of reminded me of American sign language it was cool.

Thursday our supposed thanksgiving so we were told this year by our president and wife that we weren't aloud to have thanksgiving as a district or with other missionaries and they told us to celebrate it another way but thats hard to celebrate a holiday where all you do is gather with those you love and eat food if the first option is taken out of the equation. 

But we found a way around that hiccup by having some elders from lviv come down to do registration, it didn't work out to where they could come on Thursday so instead we did it on Friday but it didn't go that smoothly. 

So the elders from lviv got there Thursday night and well they brought more and more bad news so first thing is that the visa trips are now back on well not for us old missionaries just of the young ones and the Christmas zone conference will be without them so that was sad. 

But then Friday came and we planned to eat thanksgiving then but out of nowhere the president from lviv came down and wanted to take us all out to lunch so we all went into center and spent some time with him. It was weird cause he didn't call he didn't tell us anything about him coming but there he was to ruin out plans. 

Unfazed we pressed ahead and had out thanksgiving just a little latter than we would have wanted. We started thanksgiving at 9 pm on Friday night and finished when the lviv elders had to go back home which was about 11pm so that night was long but really fun and it made me laugh cause we would have been up waiting for their train anyway but this way we still got our thanksgiving meal thing. 

The baptism was also really great so Saturday we had the baptism at 10 and everything went smoothly and it was great i really love being a part of the baptisms especially here in uzhorod the members here are on fire for the Gospel and the sharing of it. 

We also went out to eat on Saturday after the baptism with all the branch who wanted to come and it was really fun i have never done that without the president in lviv there so that was fun and lets just say i didnt eat much the left over thanksgiving meal was enough.  

Im so glad you got to see ricky it was really great to have him in my district this last transfer and im glad you fought over the ties i wanted you to save them for when i get home but thats not a big deal but.... no im joking im glad you liked them. 

Looking forward to see your faces. 

Love Elder Naumann

money (from 11/25/2013)

Dear Family, 

Well this week has been an interesting one with a few money problems at the beginning of this week with well none we had to pay our land lady for something and then the money that we had for the rest of the month wasn't there we ended up figuring everything out but Wednesday but lets just say that we didnt eat very much and we are getting a divorce......

Well other then that we had a great week we have a baptismal date for the 30th with a 13 year old kid so this whole week we have been teaching him and helping him prep for that its exciting cause we will have 3, 13 year olds it will be crazy. 

So basically in the group here we do everything right we are growing but we still have to do stuff so our week consists of these activities with the group. Tuesday we have English club then Wednesday we have family night then Thursday English then Friday Mcm and mutual and then Saturday we have cleaning and then Institute then Sunday we have church which i along with the other missionaries run with the help of the members. 

So mom your question How do you balance in your mission? Well its hard especially when you introduce school applications into the soup pot. But something that i have been trying to do since the beginning of my mission is getting in 15 min of scripture reading a day and for some reason life balances out by itself well of coarse not by itself but for some reason i feel more balanced in my day to day life. 

Something that i do like about running the group is that we can make the activates really fun and for some reason they fall into place like we want them. I konw thats not what will always be but for now im glad, For instanctance we planned the Christmas party and lets just say that it will be really fun we plan a nativity scene and a Christmas tree and Santa and well lots of great stuff but i do want something, How do you make eggnog from scratch that would be great to have i think. 

Well thats my week i have to go but i love you family and others and have a great week. 

Love Elder Naumann

New Family

Dear Family, 

Well you know whats funny none of you have said anything about whats going on in kiev, apparently there is this revolution going on where there are now 2 million students resisting/ fighting the cops in kiev so that they can join the eu. Well i guess its not that big of a thing but here it is thats all the people here are talking about and its funny cause most of the investigators in our district are students and they are at the revolution in kiev and crazy things are going on. No mom yzhorod is not effected cause we are on the other side of the mountains so all is safe and all is good we just have some small rallys going on once and a while. 

Well enough about politics and the crazy revolution, now on to the good news, we have a new family that we are teaching, one of our members brought them to be taught and they want to be baptized this month so we are super stoked and they are so elect they have 2 kids one is 8 and the wife is prego and will be giving birth next month so we got to get her in the water quick before we have a problem with infant baptism. 

We also had a fun activity this week with the young men's, We are preping for a Christmas party which will have music a play and gifts and Santa and also well just lots of great stuff so we are working towards that and we are having the boys sing silent night for everyone so that's great and we practiced and the boys were fun they are really hard to teach music but its fun stuff. 

Im glad the singing stuff went well this week im always sad when i hear about stuff like that and how im not there but yeah its not that big a deal i be there soon enough well i would say too soon but i dont intend on missing another one. 

Macey I want you to know that I'm actually enjoying listing to Christmas music this year. I think its cause i forbade my companion and all others with the help of a sister, from singing Christmas songs until this week. and this next week we are planning to have a Christmas tree up soon enough at the church so all will be ready for Santa. 

It sorta got snowy here too we are having a problem it comes down at night and sticks and then in the day it turns to slush and then again at night it freezes and well lets just say you fall hard sometimes, i mean not me but others. 

Well i will pray for you grandma and well everyone else and you all got to pray for the family sorry we cant give names but pray for the family in uzhorod that they will come to our meetings and church to get baptized. 

2 baptisms.

Dear Family, 

Well first things first macey congradulations on getting into suu that is so great for you im glad that despite the examples of your brothers you managed to overcome the school wall and get a great scholorship that is way great. 

So this week has been one of the best/ busiest of my life as a missionary well also as a person and it was great. So this week we had 2 baptisms on Saturday which went so well i never thought that a baptism could go so well. 

We had the whole branch of 8 come and the missionaries and a few visitors. The water was also warm which has never happened ever in my time serving as a missionary it is always ice cold. They both went under easily and well i could name everything that happened but it would take too long. Lets just say that i really am grateful to the lord for alouing us to participate in helping others come to Christ. 

Its funny to look at missionaries and to see that no matter how hard we work we really dont have the power to change peoples minds no matter how smart or talented we cant truly convert people. Thank goodness that god had provided a way for everyone of his children to feel and to know truth. The holy ghost has the most work to do out of all the missionaries in the world. He is always awake he is the most effective and he knows every language. Im grateful that god gave us him as a companion because without him we really would not succeed. 

This week we got to also have a stake conference of sorts where we had to download it and then watched it on Sunday and it was good we thought something would happen bur nothing happened except the preaching of the Gospel. 

Oh sorry that i forgot we got transfers this week and im staying in uzhorod and im going to be with my future roommate his name is elder Austin and im really excited to be serving with him. Its funny that the people you want to serve with changed throughout you mission. At the beginning of my mission i really would have never wanted to serve with this elder but now there isnt a person i would want to serve with more. Unfortunately i have to move apt. but all the apt. here are really great so all is well. 

Oh we also went bowling this week as a branch, we had a bunch of investigators there. We rented a bus last min we walked up to the bus driver and asked him if he could drive us and he said yes. We had a really fun activity. 

Sad thing with transfers elder callister is going home and mom he has some stuff to give you so make sure to get in contact with him maybe go to his homecoming or something. Its sad to see him go home its funny thought cause i remember when he left from pg and now i was at his Ukraine farewell it was good and sad. 

Well have a great week this week and macey good job again im really proud of you. 

Love Elder Naumann 

What A Week

So in short the miracle of the week is that on this Saturday there will be 2 people getting baptized here in little uzhorod which brings our numbers up to 10. It really has been a miracle with them both being ready at the same time. I wont tell you much detail but one woman has 4 member children and the other woman is a friend of a member who we started teaching and she started our first meeting with what can i do to get baptized next week so we told here and its just been a miracle. 

We also had president lattin over this weekend and he is so great he helped us with the whole branch thing and how he is our leader so that was great we also just had studies with him which are always fun and really interesting. 

We also had a really fun Halloween party where we trick or treated. In Ukrainian they translate it to candy or death thats what they said when they came to the door we had. We also played bobbing for apples and the apples that we had were so small so what i did was i just sucked up the apple into my mouth and everyone was wondering where the apple was and then i opened my mouth and the apple fell it was funny. We played a few other games and they really loved it. 

Sorry this is so short i have to go to a lesson. That was basically my week and yeah so have a great one everyone. 

Love Elder Naumann

Random miracles

Dear Family,

This week sounds like it has been busy and full of lots of things, Well that's the same for me too, when i look back at the time that i have spent here in uzhorod it feels weird and i dont think that i like how fast time is going. Its also weird cause I have been working on school applications and it was weirder to have elder callister tell me that he is signing up for classes. Man real life comes way to quick and sometimes people think, If only i can make it to the end of my mission, or the end of school or this or that it will all be better and easier. That is not the case we have to let ourselves to be happy now because god intended us to be happy now and for us to see the beauty now.

This week we had a few visitors including the zone leaders for exchanges and elder tribett for de-registration. The zone leaders were sort of fun because we had elder terry back and all the members wanted to see him which is always fun to be with those missionaries and hope that the members would do the same thing for me if i ever come back.

We had some really cool miracles this week one of them including one of our members bringing one of their friends back to the church. She had already been taught most of the lessons but then fell off the map but now she wants to be baptized so we know how to provide that service. Its really cool cause she just dropped out of nowhere so we are going to do all we can to get her in the water.

We also had our first mutual activity with the 2 young men in our group where we had them invite their friends to come play soccer with a few Americans and we played them and its a good thing that elder callister can play soccer or else it would have been really embracing. well not really its not to hard to beet a few 12 year olds. Ok yeah it is they were really good.

Something happened this week that was sad and well at the same time unexpected and the same time very expected. So this week we were told that the mission pres. 1st councilor was coming down to talk and to teach us but we called him on Saturday and he told us that he wasn't coming so yeah i had the wonderful opportunity to prepare a 20 min talk man was it hard and i hear my talk was a bit long but i made it.

Well thats about it family there were some great miracles this week but no time will tell you next week.

Love Elder Naumann

Weeks of Firsts

Dear Family, 

Well this week has been fun we have really had some good success with investigators and alot of them area coming out of english and they are really interested. We have been having some phone problems this week well honestly since elder vernon got here just like in brovary everything goes wrong, This week we had the sisters lock their phone and the other elders get their phone lost and us having to go buy one, and the sisters multiply times have left their phone at home so yeah we are having fun. 

This week we also had exchanges and it was great being with Elder callister and elder johansen we had some interesting experiences together. On tuesday me and elder callister got together and worked on Wednesday and it was great elder callister congratulate you kim on the mission call he is super excited for you and hopes to see you at his home coming. I was also on a service project with elder johansen out at a members house but this time we built him a cabinet and it was funny because he wouldn't listen to us so we just did our best and learned patients and we spent about 4 hours with him, afterwords we talked with each other and we thought wow we could have done that in an hour and a half but thanks to the half crazy half blind member we got to have fun for 4 hours. 

We also visited a member who is in the hospital and has Cancer which is really sad and we just found out today that she herself doesn't know that she has Cancer, our doctor friend told us and it is sad she is 69 years old and really frail and its sad to see her but she is a trooper and is doing her best in with what she has and her daughter was there so we met her too. 

English was really good this week we have decided to change really everything cause we haven't really been finding investigators from English so we changed that and we found 4 investigators this week just from English and its great. 

This week was my first regular week to conduct sacrament and it was all set up with a member of the mission pres. coming down to speak but 2 days before he called and canceled. So we had to do some quick prep for some talks but they were fine. And this week I taught G.P. and the subject was eternal marriage and i got to say i dont like talking about stuff i have never done. 

Thats about it im glad to hear that every thing is going great. keep it up. 

Love Elder Naumann

General Conference in Ukrainian

Dear Family, 

Well this week was really good we got to watch general conference in ukrainian, and this was my first time that i had watched it inukrainian and not for language study. We have been watching it for comp. study at home on our tv but we only got the first session so far but its great so far. Watching it in ukrainian is really hard, Its like listening to someone who speaks like they were reading a collage paper and not the conversational words that i know so it is hard but it was fun. 

We have also been meeting alot this week with one member who is a recent convert and has been struggling with his addictions and so to help him we have been listening to the 12 step program of recovery that the church has so it has really been helping him and its really a great program. 

This week we got to play base ball again and it was way fun these Ukrainians just dont know how to play they want us to train them but none of us really know how to play but thats ok we spent some time talking about the Gospel and there were some kids who were like yeah i will come so that was cool. This one kid we talked to said that he is Greek Catholic and that he tried going to another church but they kicked him out because he was Greek Catholic. so we of coarse invited him to our church because we are always happy to take people in. 

We also spent some time doing some service with a member, this guy had us help him move logs that he was cutting down with a new chainsaw and well to give you an idea of this man he only has one good eye and lets just say that he had no safety equipment (dad you wouldn't have liked that) and he may have fallen a couple of times with the chainsaw going so yeah it was fun. Dont worry family I have learned my lessons of safety and didnt do anything stupid. 

We met with some investigators this week and had a really cool experience with this new investigator. So this man has been coming toenglish club for like a month and then this week out of nowhere when we were leaving a store we see him and he tells us that he knows a man in lviv who is a member and he basically just asked how does one become a member. Miracle right!!!!!!

So update on the whole group leader thing and branch situation with finances and all that fun stuff. So i have been talking with pres. Lattinthis week alot and now we area not part of the lviv branch we are now part of the lviv ukraine mission branch and pres. lattin will be our branch pres. and i will be a councilor and we wont have really any money but at least it will be by the rules. 

Thats about it this week family love you. 

Elder Naumann

Becoming what the lord wants

Dear Family, 

This week has been sort of stressful and full of new things and old things and things that i wouldn't have wished upon myself but one thing that i learned this week was to trust in god and to know that whatever he does and whatever he asks you to do he prepares a way for you to do it. It wont be easy and it will take time and will take effort but he is always there. 

This week i got myself a new and an old companion. Im back with elder vernon and its funny to see how we have changed and how we have stayed the same. We have spent some time this week contacting and teaching people. We have both noticed that when we were in brovary we taught with the most unity and with the most power, That was interesting to me because we didn't know the language and we didnt know what we were doing but we trusted in the lord and knew thats where we should be. 

I am now the acting group leader here in uzhorod and its scary, i conducted the meeting this week and i had to make it all up for the paper that we use was gone and we still cant find it so will have to make a new one. 

On top of running the meetings i also have to deal with all the money. I received a call from the mission pres. and he told me that i wasn't doing it right, unfortunately i was just doing what my 4 fathers told me to do and what they have always done. In my knowledge they didn't just do it blindly they asked up and the answers built up into my knowledge of how to run the branch, unfortunately we have to now change that oh well it will be hard but whatever

Spent some time with elder johansen this week while we were waiting for our new companions and we made the fun fetty finally, it was his 1 year mark and it was close to my 18 month mark, which was weird cause my sisters from my mtc group went home they went home............ I wasnt ready for that, i remember like it was yesterday that we were all in the mtc speaking awful Ukrainian and now one of our sisters is in Israel and is translating for 6 ukrainian women who live in her group. 

That was weird to me to hear that there was nothing at conference cause last year was so big i guess theydidnt want to do something crazy and big so soon after last years announcement, The sisters in our district are both 19 and they have only been out for 6 weeks they are stressed but they are celebrating their 1 year from the announcement date they were rather excited. 

Well thats it family mom its getting a bit colder but who know what will happen on this side of the mountains, and im curious to see what will happen with transfers too because pres. lattin is a stickler for money and once he sees how much money he is spending he might change his mind. and mom the lord really does know your knees....... 

Love Elder Naumann

New law (from Sept.9th)

Dear Family,

Well first things first this week we received an email telling us that we cant email pictures home or tell about peoples personal information like names or things like that and especially not letting family put things on facebook or blogs and other things like that so kim sorry take down the blog.  So family i will tell you things but i will leave out alot of things so bare with me.

Well this week has been really good and at the same time really long its weird the whole time warp that the mission creates but i like it. Well on monday we had not much but i did get a new dictionary its for polish and i got to say i like polish but we will see how much i study it along with ukrainian its just so easy. ok so the reason why im learning polish is unknown to me but im doing it for some reason.

We had something fun this week we got an announcement that we need to in the next 2 weeks have as many verities of fruits and veggies so guess what we did went all out we have had all together 45 different fruits and veggies and man it was hard for me to eat all those veggies raw but i got to say mom that i like squash but for the most part my taists buds just delt with the veggies calmly.

We also had english on tuesday and thursday and it was good our english program is really good the people love it and the people are really funny sometimes and something cool that happened this week we got a call from this woman who wanted us to come to her english club so that natives can come over so this week we should go.

We had a really good exchanges this week with the zoneleaders and i was with the elder who served here first so lots of people loved him and really well everyone knew him on the street i hope that when i leave and get the opportunity to come back that people remember me too. we also had family night and alot of people came it was fun we made air plains and tried to get eturnal life it was fun.

So on saturday we had a really cool picnic where most of the members came and also some people fromenglish came and an investigator from lviv who useto live here so yeah we had about 20 people there and we mad them american hamburgers which me and my companion made for them they loved it and they made us shashleky which is ukrainian shishkabob they were way good we had a really good time next to the river here.

We also after that had a really good lesson with 2 people who were really interested in the gosple which was really cool they were asking great questions adn it was fun. the guy works as a black smith so that was cool.

We had a good church meeting this week too some members didnt come so that was sad but its interesting when in lviv some church members dont come its not a big deal but when it happens here we find them or at least look for them so thats what we did.

Sorry everything is not very detailed but thats all i can do sorry.

Thats crazy about the weather at home who knew that that would happen after you took out the ugly bush. glad you all had a cool fireside and everyone is doing good, mom sound great.

Love you all and have a great week.

Elder Naumann 

Speak your Language (from Sept. 23)

Dear Family 

I will first answer moms questions and then tell about my week. 

How are you?  Im great. ok but really im doing good. 

How is your new area? It is just as good as the hipe from the other missionaries. The people here are few but they are really strong.

Did the baptism take place that you told us about a while ago? Well the 2 small boys got baptized but the mom hasnt got baptized yet.d

 How is it being in the leadership of the branch? its funny and harder and easier then i thought i dont know how that works but its great. 

 What is the weather like right now? It has been raining this last week alot and aparently the winter is going to be a fun one im not looking forward to it. 

Do you have a new favorite food other than borsch that we could try? well i really like vereniky with sour cream but you really shouldnt try anything new while im not there you will probably make it wrong. 

This week we had our first real zone conferance which was fun and funny the things that pres. lattin think are problems and what he wants us to change so i will tell you about that. 

So on monday we had exchanges and i was with elder tribett we met up at the end of the day and planned to spend tuesday and wednesday together so that the people in lviv would be happy with us and wouldnt have to fight over us. On tuesday after english practice we walked home thought and it was raining and the walk home takes about an hour but we hit a terentral rain storm which hit us so hard and we were soaked even with unbrellas so that was a fun experience especialy since we had to use the shoes we had for the next day and they were water loged but we found others to use so that was good. 

So some new things from zone conference is that we will now be SYL ing all day everyday so yeah it will be fun and we are now banned from spending any time other than missionary work time with sisters. its a social activaty if we do. so no more district unity building lunches on pday and no more haircuts from sisters which sucks cause one sister here really likes cutting our hair so yeah. And no more excersising together. I think he is worried that by the end of the year with 29 elders and 26 sisters we will just be dubble dating. 

So our 2 investigators are doing really well they are reading and this time they had their brother sit in and he was interested too hopefully they will take a baptismal date the next time we come. they love having us over and we love being over we are just woried that we will get stuck in the friend zone and we dont want that to happen we want them diving deep into the waters of baptism. 

Yesterday and the day before we had president lattin here to teach us and teach the members and we really had no idea what to do cause he is here for like 4 days and didnt tell us he wanted to be on lessons or any expectations so its really weird he really strugles to tell us concreet things he is nothing like president k but i like him, he just barly studied with us and it was good he is working really hard on ukrainian so he is great.

Love Elder Naumann

Here he comes again

Dear Family,

Well this week is the week we got transfer info, and well it was interesting. So first let me give you a backround in what a typical transfer of president K goes, you stay with a companion for 2 transfers and in totall 4 in an area about 6 months and i like thismethid but now having pres. lattin as our mission president everything has changed. He likes people to only be in an area 2 transfers and with companions for 1.

So my companion is getting transferred to become a zone leader and im staying to become the group leader and to again to serve with you guessed it elder vernon the man i spent 6 months with already in a small cold town called brovery and now we are back together, He is the district leader and all the surroundings that we had in brovary like a big branch, cold ugly apt. and no languageskils. now we have a really small group and the language is good and the apt. is great so yeah it will be fun. It leads me to believe that i will be leaving uzhorod in 6 weeks.

Also something cool is that elder callister is coming into our district and will end his mission here with me and that will be cool it was funny because we had a lunch with a member here who does our registration asked us if i was serving with callister or vernonand i was like well i guess elder callister because i already served with elder vernon but i guess that doesnt make a difference to the lord. but as a consolation prize for not winning elder callister i get him in our district.

So mom you ask me about what i want in my Christmas package, and well you already know about the brown sugar and the peanut butter and you ask about anything else and well to be honest with you, I have clothes for the next year i have 4 suits (2 were gifts from a rich friend) and now i have an extra coat like a big guy also from that rich guy so i really dont know what more i could need. My good friend elder johansen just made a funny comment, We dont live in a third world country. I wasnt going to say anything but any country without peanutbutter is a third world country.

Well this week was uzhorodes 1120 birthday so that was cool except for the extra dose of drunk guys on the street but whatever. So something cool this week we had 3 Americans come to church and they have been coming here for this like children's help program and they were here 15 years ago when the branch here had just opened and then closed. They told us why the missionaries were taken out 15 years ago, its because the mission pres. wanted the big cities to grow and so he let this city die. they said that they have been praying for 15 years for this place to open again and now it has.

Well thats about all this week im glad everything is good at home and tell grandma i love her.

Love Elder Naumann

Baptisms and unplanned conformations

Dear Family,

Well everyone this week has been an interesting one we had first off me getting sick, registration things a baptism fun englishclasses and me getting my first calling. Lets just say that this week was rather eventful and i had a planner so i remember it all well most of it. 

So first thanks for the pictures kyle and mom i sent you a few pictures with me in it but yeah nothing really exciting as those pictures go except a baptism in a rented hot tub that was cold. 

This whole week i have been a little sick and one day i got hit hard but im all better now and its sad when you get sick because you loose precious time that you dont get back its really hard sometimes to be sick and have no area book to call people so it was hard but im over it now. 

Also this week we had a fun experience with a miracle we started off with getting a phone call from the registration man namedlubamer and he told me that a bus with my documents would be in uzhorod at 8:45 so we showed up to the place it should be and waited and called him and waited and called him and every time he said just wait elders just wait so that was frustrating cause we have a curfew its 9 or 9:30 if you have a lesson and we were there waiting until 10 and it never came we waited there and while we were waiting there another kid named vania was there and we talked with him and he was cool and he was like hey could i maybe come to your church and we were like yeah you can so maybe he will come some day. we made it home and had a whole bunch of things the next 2 days and in the end i got it and im registered and all is well it was just an interesting experience.

We also had fun english classed this week i had some really fun conversations with this kid named albert he is 12 and knows 5 languages and is super smart and way funny. the english program here is really good we have about 30 people come and they love it. 

We also had 2 not 3 baptisms which is sad but it was still great the baptisms that happened the woman who didnt get baptised who should have was their mother so if you mom could put the heminets family in the temple that would be great. 

So the kids that got baptised are 11 and 14 they are way funny kids and the lord has really prepared their family to help uzhorodgrow. we did the baptisms at a cold hot tub and the kids are so small and they were so cold but it went well they were great.

Saturday and sunday we had the president from the lviv branch come down and we hung out with him he came down to get callings to uzhorod and it was good for the members they are ready for callings they just need to be taught. Im called as the missionary coordinating leader and i have a member as the assistant and the calling is really for him he is great and loves to help. for now no one but the missionaries have the Melchizedek priesthood so we have all those callings but soon roman the president in lviv thinks that they will be separate.

Well mom i answered most of your question except the last about the new pres. he is great very different from president klebingatso yeah i like him but i cant say which one is my favorite.

Well love you all family have fun in the fast lane.

Elder Naumann 

 

fun week for all

Dear Family,

Wow sounds like alot is going on for everyone school and work and new computers and well it sounds like everything in real life has just hit and lets just say that im glad to be on a mission it is the one place and time in my life where i dont have to worry about "real" life and its great i love it. 

Well this week was simply a bomb like literally we had like no free time to contact or even visit very many members cause we were home base for everyone to come in and find their new companions and sending them off so it was crazy. 

I was still with elder Nielson for most of the week and man when im with him even my journal goes under so i really cant recall where i was what i was doing but its ok now i have a new planner and all will be well. so i will do a brief overview of what i did.

Mon. We did regular stuff but mid way through we met up with a member and we went bowling and it was great its fun to do regular things with members and weird too. we also had dinner at tex mex for one last time well i keep saying that but i keep going back so yeah we them met up with him again after tex mex and we talked and walked and he is doing great he is really struggling with coming to church cause he doesn't like the members but he is doing alot better. 

Tuesday we had a really crazy day we ran around and tried to please everyone and that ivan pavlieshen guy who keeps calling you really wanted to spend time with us but we had to so registration stuff and English and well lots but it all worked out and it was crazy.

Wednesday well we spent the whole day with roman and we did alot of stuff we shopped and visited my favorite old granny and it was fun he is great he is our branch pres. over uzhorod so we talked about uzhorodwith my new companion elder terry he is great and amazing at the language but on the more boring side butim use to that. Its sad to leave lviv for the second time i never thought i would come back but i did and i hope i did what the lord wanted. 

Thursday well we woke up early and went off to our train to uzhorod and well the rest of the week went like this English and English planning cleaning and church with only 6 member so it was good i like it the only thing is that we have to carry the whole thing on our backs for now cause the members are so new but i like it we are working hard here we have a few investigators and i haven't met them yet but we are going to hit the city hard, we have 3 hopefully baptisms this week so thats great and im excited to work here. 

well love you all and hope real life is great i pray for you all so much and i hope for the best that can happen to all of you so have a great week. 

Love Elder Naumann

Uzhorod Say What!!!!

Dear Family,

Well i think first things first i will just answer moms questions. 

So you are going to a new area huh? Yeah its way cool the area has just been opened like 3 or 4 months ago and i have wanted to serve there since we knew that it would open. 

 Who will be your companion? His name is elder Terry he served around me in vinestya so I already know him pretty well.

 It seems like the farthest point West in Ukraine. Yeah it is its on some boarders so lets just say that its small and everyone there speaks a mix of Russian Ukrainian and Hungarian. that will be fun huh.

 how is your apartment? so my apt. there is one of the best ones in the mission because its a small town its not too expensive so they have air conditioners and king size beds, great stuff huh, especially cause right now im sleeping on basically a couch. 

 Where do you shop for food, do your laundry? well there are typically laundry machines in all the apt. so there should be one there but yeah then shopping, there are usually big shopping malls and big stores and there is even one here called vell mert the Ukrainian version of wall mart so yeah thats where we shop usually if not just at basically a gas station size store, those are everywhere and cheep too.

 Is there a branch there? no not yet there are 6 members and 6 missionaries and they are just a group off of lviv branch so its good they are small there but the members have this crazy fire its awesome. 

Well yeah sounds like you are all having a great continuation of your fun week with kyle and katie thats so great hey kyle i got your message. i like your ear lobes too. Im way excited for the new temple video it sounds way cool all the missionaries are talking about it apparently its a topic of discussion.

Thank you for the package it was so perfect it was literally everything that i wanted, but my companion said it looked like you had all eaten half the sweetish fish and i said no they wouldn't do that but i wouldn't blame you if you did, i for sure would have too. that alan Radmall is way cool  he hooked me up he is the best. He said the next time he comes he will tell you and you can give him stuff and he can leave it in the mission home or something so watch out for a facebook message or a call or something.

Well this week has been absolutely crazy there are so many changes, every single companionship except one is changing, i dont know what pres. is thinking but we think he is sweeping the floor. Its great though cause i dont want to be in leadership and i dont want to train and it looks like the older farts are out and the new guys are in and im loving it. so something cool that i heard is that by the end of the year we will only have 29 elders and 26 sisters, crazy right almost 50 50 double date time. 

So i have been with elder nielson this week and we basically worked alot and spent alot of time with members who will miss us and already knew we were leaving so yeah we went out to a celo and i milked a cow that was fun. We also went on exchanges with some members and it was a blast the members here are awesome i love them. Im really sad to leave cause this is my home and i have only been here 2 transfers well ok 6 all together but that's whatever. 

Hey kyle this i a secret message to you elder Hansen Ringer says hi, he apparently worked with you at country side pool or whatever so thats cool right he is leaving this week and he says hi. and he also tells you to shave your beard we all know you miss having a lot of hair but get over it. 

Well im excited for this new chapter in the mission and im excited for all of you and starting school and stuff so have fun and do work. 

Love Elder Naumann