Ukraine Week 41: Russian WHAT????

Dear Family 

Well this week has been well you could say crazy, So transfers this week which means that we had a butt load of lessons with members which were way fun and sad because i really love the members in Bovary and the branch is just the most solid branch i have ever seen. 

So on Monday we had 2 lessons with members and they both wanted to feed us so they did and now i know a little bit about the way American missionaries feel all the time ( maybe ) Well so we went over to the pauk family and had a really nice time there but we could only say for like 30 min and then we went to the branch pres. house and that was really fun their kids love us and their son who is like 3 or 4 loves us because every time we go over we bring something and we did this time too and he hugged us and told us to never leave and that was cute, we were really busy the rest of the day too with some cleaning and a little prep work for the new missionaries.

Tuesday we had our last district meeting and last time at dominoes and that was fun we had to cut our studies because we had so much prep work to do we cleaned and packed and then we went to a lesson at night with a really fun member and she fed us but we had to cut that short because we were going to have a meeting with our baptismal date but then he canceled so that was way sad so we came home and did more work.

Then Wednesday we had all day and only one meeting at night to do stuff and somehow we managed to finish everything and I was amazed and excited to be leaving but sad too we had a little meeting at night with another family and they were way nice and fed us too so that was awesome, but somehow my bags got like twice as big as last transfer and i didnt even buy anything so that was weird.

So Thursday we had transfer day and we had planned to meet our land lady in the early morning hours and get a taxi and then ride it into Kiev no big deal right.... wrong so we got a taxi and it was like 30 min late and then it was the smallest taxi i have ever seen and we had 5 big bags worth of stuff so we finally figured everything out and ended up that i and elder vernon had to have the bags on top of us and well long story short we went to the wrong address ( 2 hours) and then ran out of gas 

(another hour) and then grabbed another taxi of the side of the road ( much bigger taxi) and then we made it to the office and dropped of my bags and then back in a taxi (1 hour) and back to the place we were meeting elder vernons companion yeah.....!!!!!! and then  i got with another elder and went to the office and on the bus we took my new companion and another new elder in my district were there so we talked for a while and then went to the office.

We did a bunch of stuff there and i finally met sister Olds and that was funny i asked hey do you by chance know katie naumannand then i was like oh wait hoke and then she was like yeah wait how do you know here and so she says hi to everyone especially  you katie.

We then ( my new comp. and elder tribett and his new comp elder porter) got in a taxi and then dropped our stuff of and then decided to make our way to TGI Fridays and that place was way way expensive and really good i loved it an then we had to split up because elder tribett forgot his backpack at the office so me and my comp elder Walker ( Russian speaker) got on a bus going to vinnitsya with my bags and got back really late it took 4 hours but all is good my apt. isnt really bad just dirty so yeah i will fix that and then bed.

So i will tell you a bit about elder walker so he went to suu before his mission and lives in las Vegas and he is a vocal solo major, he has been out on the mission 3 more transfers than me and speaks Russian and is half Mexican and half white so yeah that's a little about him.

Then on Friday and Saturday we had a bunch of service and that was really exhausting but fun this place is really not that big but not that small its in the middle and really nice i like it, the branch is small. 

Saturday and Sunday we watched conference and the visited some less active members on Sunday and that was nice to see them and to try to get to know everyone but it will be good here but maybe we as Ukrainian speakers will only be here for like 1 transfer because our president wants this area to be in his mission but who knows. 

Well im glad everyone is alive and kicking, and yeah mom lets plan on the 5th for now and i will ask if that will work i think it will and yeah so think of some times that you would want to do it because we have to decide before next Monday.

Love you Elder Naumann

Ukraine Week 40: Craziness

So first the questions mom

I am so glad that you finally got your package! me too thanks for it.

That must mean that you are ready for another one, right? yeah i am and i have come up with some things that aren't here and that i want in basically all other packages, so brown sugar that's top on the list then resses peanut butter cups and then peanut butter and no candy other than that well maybe sweatish fish cause we have all other candy here and im rich with msf, and maybe some of that grape coolade stuff that takes no sugar would be awesome, and of course mac and cheese (cheese)

The package was for your birthday, so if I send another one soon you should have it for Christmas? yeah it takes about 3months for a package to get here and to me from the mission office.

 Where is the new mission office going to be located? lviv thats all i know 

When will you know where you will be assigned and all that jazz? Im going to be in the lviv mission.

Have you met the new president yet? no we wont until he comes as our pres.

When are transfer changes? on Thursday i will be leaving and so will elder vernon and im going to be with a Russian speaker and we will be in vinitsya. 

How are you getting along with your companion? great we are way good

Does being the 3rd brother help you get along with your companions better? maybe i really have no idea I really think the only thing that makes it easy to get along with companions is patients and being humble and teachable and willing to compromise so yeah maybe being 3rd helped.

whew that took a long time to answer those mom. hey and that's cool you saw elder Wallace he was a way awesome missionary and I liked him alot but I dont know where he is from sorry.

wow 20 missionaries its great to see how the lord is really speeding up his work, its amazing to think that there will be upwards of 100,000 missionaries out soon so yeah crazy.

So this week was really craziness so first on Monday we went to a bible store in Kiev to buy Ukrainian bibles and i bought two a cool blue and orange one and a pure white one, i bought the white one because i always want to steal the white bibles from the temple but that is probably a sin so i bought one instead. 

Tuesday we had a really regular day with district meeting and English.

then on Wednesday we went over to the Clark's and had a really nice last day with them we didn't know we were both leaving yet but i had a feeling but we had a fun time and at church on Sunday the kids came up and hugged me and that was way cute.

Then Thursday we had some exchanges and well i was with elder Michel's in his area and i always love going into others areas, we had fun we basically did nothing but errands buying tickets for him and then English with this really funny singer and yeah not really much but i found out that i was getting transferred with him because our registration lady blurted it out that i was leaving so that was funny.

So then on Friday we didnt really have anything all week we were working up to Saturday and we on Saturday got a call from our district leader telling us we were leaving and that was crazy and this place is getting whitewashed again so thats sad and then we watched general conference all day long and i loved the messages from it. 

Then on Sunday we had ward council and told everyone we were leaving and it was sad and they were like thank you and we were like we didnt really do much but we did our best then we watched the first session and set up like 15 meetings for the next 3 days and this random less active woman came and referred this 22 year old who is best friends with her active son and invited us over that night to teach him and after the next session and lunch we went over and had a really great lesson and he accepted a baptismal date for 2 weeks from now so that was way awesome but kinda sad we will miss it he is way cool and way ready and im glad the lord prepares his children to be taught when they need to.

This next week will be crazy because we will be double booked every night for the next 3 days with member meetings and investigator meetings crazy.

Well i love you all and am very grateful for you prayers.

Love Elder Naumann

Ukraine Week 39: Warm days are here at last!

Dear Family 

Well this week was warm, well maybe not that warm but much warmer than it has been and all the snow is melting I think today it is positive 1 or 2 and that's awesome I think I may have even sweat a little this week. 

Well this last Monday was rather normal we went over to a members for family night and that was really fun he speaks English because he served in Utah and his sister was there too and she also speaks English but she served here just in another part of Ukraine so that was cool, we played this pantomime sort of game and their kid was way funny and then he told me that i had to act out something so I did and elephant and he really liked it when I made my elephant noise, he said that if his eyes were closed he would have thought an elephant was there in the room so funny. 

Then Tuesday was rather an adventure, I think it was the hottest day it has been since winter started and we sure felt it, So we had district meeting and instead of being late 20 min like last time we were early 20 min so we went in and the sisters were there teaching someone. and we made some phone calls to plan our day and one phone call made our whole day full of travel I will tell you why. So funny story we got a text 2 weeks ago on Friday telling us if we hadn't already given our letters to the office to call the ap's so we called the ap's because we had no idea about this letter.

We called them and they told us that it was a letter for our new mission pres. and that its not a big deal and that we could just get it to them by Tuesday and so last Monday came around and we called them and they said that they had already sent them and yeah so long story short after district meeting we went to the office ( usually a 1 hour trip) and took 2 and a half hours and we walked half the way and yeah we sat in a really hot packed bus for a long time. We got there and gave our stuff to them and got our packages and I love my package thank you. Then our pres. came out and said hey guys what are you doing here and we told him and his solution to sending our letters was to scan them and send them direct so yeah 5 hours of travel could have been solved by technology and a bit of thinking so funny story.

Tuesday we went to a less actives house and they acted like actives and we asked them why they haven't been at church and they said they have been sick and they seemed to be telling the truth they have a bunch of kids and they seemed to believe that story too soo who knows.

Then on Thursday we had a really successful day like the best day as far as numbers I have ever had. We have been making this list of people to stop by and we went and stooped by some of those people and one old lady let us in and she became a new investigator and then we had English and 2 guys there became new investigators so that was awesome cool day.

Then FRIDAY I for some reason got food poisoning and was throwing up and felt crappy so we did nothing but sleep well that's what I did I think my companion called people. Then Saturday i was still sort of sick but wasn't trowing up because I hadn't eaten in a day and a half so we tried to stay in most of the day and then had a lesson with one of our new investigators at night.

Yesterday wasn't conference for us here that's next week so i know nothing about any of the talks or things like that so I have to be patient, but we did do our weekly planning and visited this former investigator family who wasnt home so we will teach them this week maybe. 

Ok so question is this friend of kyles is this the girl who I dressed up like a unicorn for? Kyle help them understand if this is the right girl.

So I don't know about mothers day phone call I will ask but I think it should be OK with changing the date so I will ask but maybe I can just do a google + thing because Erik invited me to his circle so who knows maybe....

That's an interesting protest those women are doing and it will be interesting what the government is going to do with prop 8 thing and the guns thing and I would be really sad if the boy scouts stooped and probably the church would maybe create its own thing if that were to ever happen.

Well That is my week and I love you all have a good one and thanks again for the package I think I will make a cake on my year mark and eat it too.

Love Elder Naumann

Ukraine 38: ThevFlood, Easter and Daylight Savings

Dear Family, 

This week has been good and bad and sick and better and well the pool is small but the flood is starting.

So Monday was a normal pday with the regular stuff, we went to or branch presidents house forFHE and that was way fun their family is really nice and the kids are way cute. He also Translates for general conference so lets just say that I helped him with some translations of a conference that hasn't happened yet......:) 

Then Tuesday was even more fun so we had district meeting but to get there it took us an extra hour because we live in Ukraine where technology hasn't reached past the shovel. So we got to district meeting, We have as a mission started reading the bom so we talked alot about what we had been reading and we are all in the same spot but we got alot of cool different insights.

Then after district meeting we started exchanges, and i got elder R he is a native and he is only 17 he is serving a mini mission so that is cool. He knows no English so 100% Ukrainian. We first went to domino's and normal there just pizza. Then we came home and this kid just talked and talked and man i know more than i think sometimes so that was fun. I learned the real meaning of SYL and for those who don't know what that is ask Erik kyle and maybe dad. 

So after we did English and well i taught the whole thing and Elder R was one of the participants. Then Wednesday we got back together but apparently my companion got food poisoning at domino's and yeah he was throwing up and we were an hour away from home and getting home wasn't fun and the second we were inside he threw up in a bucket. 

So Wednesday we sat inside and i read Jesus the Christ and other things and my companion tried to sleep and managed to sleep for 20 of the next 24 hours.

Thursday we woke up and he said Im sick so he fell back asleep and i got ready for the day and sat and read. He wasn't really food poisoning sick anymore but he was super dehydrated and super starved so he slowly recovered that day while we stayed inside and then we had English and only one guy showed up so we basically taught him plan of salvation in English and that was good.

Friday was more indoors my companion was still recovering and we had weekly planning so we planned and talked and got ready for missionary meeting with the branch and that didn't happen because our missionary leader is sick so we worked on our English program.

Then Saturday was funny so we go outside to walk to and study at the church and the cataclysm had come back and so we got the the church and shoveled and then started to study and out of nowhere our branch pres. came and started to clean and turns out that this week the 5th week everyone comes and cleans and so we helped a little and then the lady who does our hair came. 

She came up and asked us if we wanted haircuts and we were like yeah, Elder Vernon was going to ask you tomorrow for one but today works too. So yeah random hair cut session and that was cool.

We then came home to have lunch because we had a lesson at 4 and we still hadn't studied what we were going to teach and so yeah we hurried home and then back and then got dogged so we finished studies and then came home and made some phone calls.

Sunday was also cool so of course it was daylight savings time so we moved forward an hour so that was fun and tiring so we had branch council and that was nice and in it we decided to have third hour first and then sacrament meeting second and then Sunday school third so we did and we first learned about family history work and then sacrament and then Sunday school.

After that we were invited over to the Clark's house and they live in a little village outside of Bovary so we followed them to a train stop and we all got on the train called an electreechkaand that was fun. We got to their house and they made us lunch and we gave them a lesson and their kids played with us and it was fun but the walk out their was flooded i was drenched up to my knees. 

We then came back to the church through the flood and train and then got a call from our mclwho asked us if we could come over and bless him and so we did and then he asked us to go bless his home teaching family and so we headed over their and then got canceled on so we came home.

Our investigator pool is almost dry we are trying too fill it but the flood makes it hard to walk on the streets. We have a plan to go and visit all the formers in our area book without numbers and see if they have any interest.

Well this week was good I'm glad I got your emails cause They weren't here when I first came to email. So kind of embracing i had no idea that Easter was yesterday so happy Easter everyone.

Love Elder Naumann