Hallejuah Hallejuah

ear Family 

So this week has been really fun Mon. we had a meeting with a family and we made paper airplanes and told them that is how the lord works he may seam like he is hurting our perfect flatness but he is really making us an airplane so we can fly. Tue. We had district meeting yeah and it was really short because we were talking alot about how we can help this area grow and our conclusion was the branch needs to be more solid and we need to help. Then my companion started feeling sick and so I did some phone calls and reminded people about english which turned out really well we had about 30 people com and at the end like everyone wanted to stay and talk and I started to talk with this girl olia and she was like yeah i really love Jesus and that was funny and so we talked about Jesus and she was like hey could you send me a song from your I pod about Jesus and I couldn't figure it out but I gave her a bom and she invited us to her chruch and i will tell you about that later in the letter.

Wed. We set up this english thing with a university near by and hopefully that will all work out but then we came back and elder walker had a piano lesson with katya to get her ready to play in sacrament which she did and did really well at and then it was raining so we came home. Thur. this is the day with the other church but before it we met with zhenya and talked about whats keeping him from baptism and it is church he doesn't stay for the full time and its really frustrating but we had a good lesson but of coarse he didnt come to church this week go figure. But we then had the Pentecostal Church called Emmanuel which i will just write a little about. 

The experience was attending a Pentecostal service with a young woman from English (named Olya)  Naturally, it was unlike any church meeting I had ever before attended. What was really interesting was the sermon from a rather emphatic African preacher ; He talked about a rather important topic-- the light of God; Ironically enough, I noticed that only half the room was lit by electrical lighting during the sermon, while the other half remained in relative darkness... My thoughts moved to the Apostasy--how these church-goers are so close to the truth, and yet it seems a bit of darkness remains. And then something rather miraculous happened: as I sat in a state of mild uneasiness (i.e. attending an unfamiliar church service tends to cause some feelings of confusion; It gave me some insight into how people must feel when attending our church for the first time, well, with the exception that they would hopefully feel an increased measure of the Spirit). Anyway, as I sat pondering, the shutters from a window in the back were ever so slightly parted by a breeze, just enough to allow a beam of sunlight to directly hit Elder Walker and I, and then the shutters closed once more. It seemed to be a reminder of the full light of the Gospel we hold, and the need to share that with our brothers and sisters, who remain in (differing) states of "spiritual darkness." How grateful I am for a tender mercy from the Lord-- for a reminder of the light we carry to the world.

Sat. What a flop day, we had sports morning and the only people who were there was this 20 year old kid dima from english which was awesome and then a 19 year old (snake) who came only to see Americans play football and so yeah. Then Well I was on Exchanges with elder porter and we had a really good time together but we met with a man named paul he speaks english with a southern accent and he loved that i was from Texas and i spoke in an accent to him and he said he understood better that way which was fun. and then we had english and we switched back to normal comps and came home. 

So Saturday was also euro day and i took alot of videos and saw this cool concert that the people were singing and playing i think the star wars battle scene when Anniken gets his arms chopped of and becomes Darth Vader and yeah there was lots of fun stuff like that which i loved. 

Sun. We had church and then a meeting with the primary helping them know how they need to do things because all we do is sing the whole time and thats not good. We then had really good home teaching with brother bevsuke, all the members love him and want him to be branch pres. again but that wont happen. 

Well that was about it for the week Im glad that trevor is going on a mission and that I guessed right and that im so humble.... Mom and dad Go to bed its to early for you to be up. Love you all 

Elder Naumann

Lviv zone conference

Dear Family 

I feel that my usual letters are a bit dry I just tell you what happened in the week and nothing really of the spiritual side or cool things like that and to be honest with you I cant really handle it anymore I get really board while im on the computer so my letters may be shorter but they should have more, more, something i dont know. 

So I think that I will do a quick run down of the week and then tell you some cool stuff that happened. So monday regular stuff with a family night at the bevsuke house, he is our elders quarm leader and it was great he is an artiest and i took pictures of his paintings and they are really good. 

Tuesday We had no district meeting because we had zone conference but we still had a meeting with zina to give her a piano lesson and then english. Wednesday we woke up early and got on a train and yeah mom trains are great you will love them and it was funny that kyle said that about the German people because ukranians are just the same they are way closed until you are lost and then they have the whole town trying to help you and then you start talking about the gospel and they shut the door on you. So we rode on the train for 7 hours and then we got into lviv and we went out to eat at a place called glory to ukraine and it was way good and then we went to my favorite old granny in lviv and we had borsh and i gave her a blessing an then roman came and brought me a music book of ukrainian folk songs so taht was cool. I love lviv. 

Thursday we spent the whole day inside with zone conference and a train ride back home another 7 hours and it was way cool. Friday we had well we slept in because our mission president isnt crazy well thats a lie but if we need to make up sleep we do it so we did for 2 hours and it was great and then we had a lesson that got dogged and then we started weekly planning and exchanges. Saturday I was with elder terry in his "area" its the same area. We had mcm and contacting and then English and it was fun he is a cool kid from lindon but he went to timp view i think but knows a lot of people i know. Sunday we had church and a return missionary came here to visit and that was cool and church and then finish weekly planning and in the end erik called me on my cell phone and i dint know who it was so i answered in ukrainian and that was funny but then we rushed to the church and didskype with him and that was way cool and then my companion skyped his family. 

So I really dont know what else I can say maybe I will tell you something about how lviv was. I was way excited to got to lvivbecause we were going to see roman and also my favorite bobushka and we did we went and i felt like I was home it was so weird we went over to my grannies house and talked and ate for a while but then roman came and my companion doesn't like roman he thinks he is too friendly towards missionaries and i was just loving it he is my favorite person ever. We also had a cool experience with the train ride home because in zone conference we were talking about how to best talk with people on trains and stuff like that and then on our way back we got contacted by 3 people and that was way awesome and it was a really fun train ride despite the fact we were on it for 7 hours in regular missionary clothes but whatever it was great, elder porter makes everything funny.

Well something I am doing right now is reading the book of Mormon all the way through again and its really great that even thought i have read it like 200 times i still get stuff out of it. For example when nephi the son of helaman is talking about the people and their wickedness, He talks about how he wishes he was in his fathers time when everyone was righteous and how he wishes he was there, Sometimes i feel like that but then i think Im here In the right place at the right time so there is no need to think of the what ifs or if only's because god has called us to this time so that was cool. 

Well family i hope that was good maybe i will think about it more next week so 

Love you Elder Naumann

Week 42:New Area and New Experiences

Well this week has been a good one im excited to talk with you all soon well accept erik which makes me sad by the way. We have been having a good time here in vinnistya and i may only be here for like another 5 weeks because if this city is in the new mission  i will stay if it stays in the old mission kiev, then all 5 Ukrainian speakers will be out and 5 russian elders will be put in our stead. 

So on Monday we went over to this really fun members house, she is active and the husband is black and less active and they have 3 caramel children who are way cute and half black. We had a fun family home evening and I also finally finished unpacking.

Tuesday we had a meeting/ piano practice with this member named zina and elder walker is helping her play so that she can play for sacrament and for the primary. we also finished weekly planning and yeah all this stuff is usually supposed to be done last week. that took a long time because i dont know anything about this area so my companion was telling me about it.

Wednesday we had registration early in the morning where we stood and sat for along time and who knows why but that always happens, you really dont even need to be there but we were and it took a while and then we went to district meeting and i made my birthday cake finally because this week on thursday was my year mark and so we ate cake and it was awesome thanks family your sick..... and then after district meeting we did some english advertising at a collage and it went well sort of we just handed out cards and no signed up but we thought it was good. then we met up with the zone leaders to do exchanges and we went out to eat and then my companion went and contacted and we had an english lesson with a member sn that was the day.

Thursday we had a fun day full of exchanges and i was with an elder jacox and that was fun we started off all together and did some english advertising at the same collage but this time we had 50 people sign up because we were loud and American and one of the elders, Peterson is his name was "sick" yeah he said that all the time and he was a salesman before his mission and so he was having people working for him immean granted they were 20 year old collage girls studding English talking with an American so who knows but our English should be good. after that we went and elder jacox is basically the missions office elder he does stuff on websites and stuff so we spent 3 hours on that and then home.

Well the next few days we did weekly planning and mcm and some more English advertising and that was good we had really no meeting except on Sunday with our investigator who had a baptismal date and now doesn't but will soon and a really nice old lady who smells a little but that was nice and something our mission pres. told us to start doing is extending the baptismal invitation 10 times a day on the street so thatsinteresting right so to start we are contacting even more than we already do so fun fun fun. 

Well i love you all and look forward to seeing you soon via skype so 

Elder Naumann Out