Jealous

Well im really glad you all are having fun up in island park im jealous, i bet the weather is great, it just decided to hit us with summer out here so it is hot like 33 deg hot ok i dont know how much that is in faronhite but its hotter than it has been for a long time.

Well i dont have too much time to write you today because my companion is sick and so we are doing a quick right and read and then going home so he can rest. 

This week we had a few fun things that happened. We first started our english program up again and this time it will be a 10 week program and we are trying to make it more fun this time because no one liked it when is was all profesional so we are going to have more games and stuff. We went to Ivano frankivsk to get me registered. We had a great picnic and institute and church. 

So first the english program is way more fun this time we have games and the games make the people speak which is hard for the group we are in charge of the beginners but they are fun sometimes they have a hard time to speak in english so they just talk in ukrainian but they go off on nothing so i made a rule that you cant speak ukrainian in the class only english so we will see how that goes. We also played a way funny game where they all had sticky notes on their heads with animals written in english and they had to speak english and describe each others animals so that was fun and funny.

We Also had a lunch with president that day which was fun he wanted to have a lunch with all the missionaries and have us ask him questions because the first conference was not very explanitory and alot was left hanging so we asked him questions but it was funny because we didnt know that it would happen so it was hard to find questions on the spot but it was good. 

Then on wednesday we went to ivano to register me so i can be legal and live here in ukraine and it was funny because all i needed to do was sign my name and that was it we then had until 5 in the afternoon to do something so we met up with some elders and did a book table and it was fun there is a native serving with elder pockrus who is a boss at book tables and then we went out to eat at this really good restorant with the best soup i have ever eaten it was fantastic. 

We had institute on friday which we didnt stay for becuase we were buying food for it and we came back and had mcm and that was way awkward becauase our mcm was mad at us because well like my companion describes it all ukrainians are pregnant woman they just get easly offended and all caught up in stupid things then they explode on you and you ask for forgivness and they say no its not your fault and then all is well so hopefuly all is still well. 

On saturday we had an awesome picnic with the whole branch and about 50 people came and we had german saseagges and we played soccer and football and basketball and stick pull which by the way i didnt loose to anyone so yeah that was fun and we talked about pioneers and how the people here are like pioneers so that was fun we had a great time and then we were all tired at the  end.

And yesterday we had a really great dinner with the ricks the sr. couple here in lviv who are leaving in like 2 weeks they are great and the food was to die for they had a crock pot which i got to say i might buy one of those because they take so long but you do no work and the food is sooooo good we had a last goodbye dinner and birthday dinner for elder bailey and it was good they are going back to idaho where they invited us to come when we are going to school there which will be good they are great. 

Well i hope you have a great week and i love you all.

Elder Naumann

The Family Again

Dear Family,

Well this week we had a goodish week i guess, we spent alot of time on the street and alot of time in our newly split area of lviv idont remember if i told you about that but yeah it has 18 people in it that are members and everyday we find something new about our area that makes that number drop so we are optimistic and happy to keep moving forward. 

Well first i think i will answer your questions.

 How you are getting along with your companion? good i guess he is quiet and people always ask him if he understands which he does he just doesn't speak back much which leaves alot on my shoulders but its fun he is really witty and quiet until just the right moment or when he is tired like really tired which he was this week he says funny things so you could say good we had transfers last week and nothing changed anywhere so we will see what next transfer brings. 

 what adventures you experienced with the ward members? Well this week we went out with a return missionary named Masha and we went out to visit our area and to have her help us to find who is there and who she remembers so that was fun we found out that we really only have like 10-12 people in our area and that even they may have moved so thats fun. This member is really funny we want her to marry our branch pres. and we think they will get married but who knows they are both from the tribe of Reuben so you know what that means well neither do i but just a cool fact. Hey something cool about ukraine is that they have found all 12 tribes here and i have found 8 and its funny to see the different people too. 

This week has been in the 80-90s so its been up there especially for being outside all day in church clothes but its good, someone told me once that utah and ukraine are at the same longitude so we have really similar climates but im glad that we aren't the same temp. The sr. couple who told me that told me that's why ukraine and utah have such big peaches and man i had some this week and they were so big and good. 

 

So we had a 70 come and speak to our branch and well everyone but our mission pres. told us that if we dont have an investigator that we cant come, harsh i know but we didnt have one so we didnt go instead we went and ate and came back for the chit chat after to see if our recent convert had shown up which he hadn't so that was sad. 

We also had exchanges this week with the district leader and i was in their area which use to be my area and my house and lets just say that the house where i lived in is not the same with different people its much dirtier. So these elders, nielson and bailey have no right to proselyte right now because the government is being stupid so only those who have been here for a long time/ a year ago can be here because the registration lasts for 1 year so im here but my registration only lasts until the end of next month so who knows if i will stay or what it all depends on the government. So while on exchanges we didnt contact anyone because we couldn't so whatever we probably wont go on exchanges again until they get their stuff handled. 

Well we got out to that family that the rogers referred to me last year and they were way happy to see me and well i guess my companion only the mom and dad were there this time but we had a good time and she said that she would call Erin well i guess yesterday so who knows if that happened you should ask mom. They invited us to a church choir performance they were organizing so hopefully we will be able to go we will see. 

Well sounds like every ones weeks went well, josie im proud of you for singing on the spot and for making it through the trek, every time i watch 17 miracles it reminds me of what those people had to go through so i can only imagine what you felt like. mom imglad you get to do some fun singing thing, i always think about choirs that i want to be in and cant its sad but will be fun when imback. Shawn learn how to tie knots while your at the camp because someone in the family besides dad should know. Well maceyand josie have fun at efy i loved my byu-i Efy experience and i think you will too so have fun and look to have fun and to meet great people. And everyone have fun at the cabin especially you erik im jealous of all of you and i love you all.

Elder Naumann 

Surprises Everywhere (From July 15th)

Dear Family,

Well yeah this week was fun, and full of a few surprises which were good cool and at the same time annoying. 

So I guess i will tell you the first surprise, That man named Alan Radmall came to lviv again, he is the man that 1 year ago took a video of me on his i phone and sent it to you mom yeah he came to church and talked to me and was like your still here eldernaumann and i was like well i came back because the last time we talked it was like 4 months after i came into ukraine and i was still in lviv so he thought that after 1 year i was still here which is sort of true and not at the same time i am here 1 year after i came into ukraine, I havent served anywhere else in the lviv ukraine mission so lviv is my only area and I love it. 

He took a video of not my companion but my companion from the mtc elder nielson and elder nielson basically said this is to you mom and this is your son he was my companion in the mtc and i love him and he is an awesome kid that was basically it and then you saw what i did and i did it in english because i know i know ukrainian but you for sure dont so im glad he did it so fastthats crazy i love technology its awesome. 

This last week we also got a call well on monday telling me that i needed to be in another town to do registration why who knows oh wait i do because the guy who does registration for us missionaries is crazy and he calls 2 min before you have to be somewhere and you always on a lesson so yeah that was fun. 

So I went to Ivano franka it is a small town where my other mtc companion is the district leader so i called him and they helped us but getting there was an adventure we got on a bus early in the morning and headed out and 11k. out of town our bus breaks down, so we are sitting there late to registration and then we prayed and then the bus driver fixes the problem and we make it safe. 

Then we do the things that we needed to do which was basically make an appearance so that the government can see that im still in Ukraine so that was fun and for the way back we had planned another bus but thankfully my mtc companion and his comp. were coming into lviv for transfers and had an extra 2 tickets so we hitch hiked with them and had an awesome tranin where we slept the whole way back. 

So another surprise this week was we were talking with sister lattin and she said yeah ya know how they said 1 year until everything is everywhere in the world, yeah not for ukraine she said probably more like 2 years so that made me sad but all is well we as of yet dont spend any time on the computer using facebook or things like that but who needs it anyway. :(

Hey here is something that trevor can do that thinking about it i have decided that it would be smart, Look up your mission and mission president and think about giving them a call and asking them the weird things that you will need that you find out you want a year into the mission and also the rules on some things like music and other things like that so you can know what to bring and that your not going in blind.

Well Im glad Erik and Becca are going great you all still remember my instructions right? dont forget them and do everything you can to fufill them. Hey why is everyone getting married thats too weird. So my trainer was on the phone with a member here and i was in the room so i got to talk to him it was cool. Josie have fun at trek and make a new friend treks are way fun if you let them be i went on one and knew no one in my group but had a blast anyway. Dad you will never be released and im glad you make a great example for me, and good luck with all your business stuff that you are doing I know you will do great. oh and your old by the way 30 years really man your old but its ok people here when they see yours and moms pictures say you look way young. 

Well everyone I hope you have a good week I love ya 

Elder Naumann

Lviv Mission Conference (From july 8th)

Dear Family,

Well this week was great and sorry for the shortness of the letter this week we have very little time because we have interviews with president lattin in an hour and he is 30 min away so yeah.

Well I think that i will tell you a bit about the lattins they are from Spokane Washington and they have 5 kids Paul peter James and john and a daughter but for obvious reasons I can only remember the boys names. one of their sons lives in pg so that's cool. They served here in Ukraine in Dnepropetrovsk as a sr couple and they loved it and well they are very different from the klebingats because of their age the way they act they act like a sr couple and like a stake pres. 

They speak very little Ukrainian but lets just say that the lord has given the gift of tongs to president lattin because he already is really good and he gave a little talk and it was way good Ukrainian. 

Well this week we had a 4th of july activity which was way fun and me and my comp had to basically prepare it all why well lets just say we got thrown under the bus a little. So all week we were working on a jeopardy game and getting root beer ready for everyone and it took a long time to do the jeopardy game and we just made it like 10 min before and the questions were translated into Ukrainian using google translate and lets just say the translation wasn't the best but whatever it just led to a very fun scary game.

We had the activity and the plan was that we would show the people how to make root beer but we decided that it makes no sense to show them how if they cant get the extract stuff from America so we just gave them some and they loved it. We then played the game and they really got into jeopardy and they almost killed each other because they acted like 1st graders and were all like my hand was up first when they were sitting in the front row so yeah we had fun with that and word of advice don't do competitive thinking games with Ukrainians.

We also went to chervonograt this week for the last time because pres. came in and told us no more so that was sad maybe he will still open it but who knows we will be praying. 

We also had a really good mission conference this week it was very basic but fun too, it was the last and only mission conference we can and will have which was sad because thats how big our zone conferences use to be but whatever we had fun and the lattins are great and although it was basic and mostly reminders it was a good start to this mission and i liked it. 

Well that was it family hope you had a good 4th of July and a good week love ya Elder Naumann

The Beginning of the end (from july 1st)

Dear Family, 

Well family this week was the end of the Kiev mission and yesterday was the beginning of the lviv mission and our new mission president got in on Saturday and is now our mission pres. I haven't got a chance to meet him but he will live here in lviv so I think there will be many chances. 

Wow it sounds really hot in utah right not im glad you took it all away from us, because the last 2 weeks it has been really hot but today and the forecast for the rest of the week looks great. 

Im so excited for Roan to be a Ginger he will be so cool. Girls camp sounded really fun and im jealous that there is trek I would have totally gone, like Erik dang i hope its fun. Im glad Becca is cool i hope everything works out... but family you have to stop them for at least 10 months that is your objective 10 months and then all is aloud. 

So this week has been really good we spent some really good time in chervonograd and hopefully soon we will convince presidentlattin to open it for us to live there.

So the beginning of the week was rather normal as far as buying groceries and family night we had with our branch president at the church and we had McDonald's and we had a spiritual thought and watched some Mormon messages. 

Wednesday was the start of the journey to chervonograd in which we picked up a straggler named Elder Bailey our district leader who wanted to do exchanges with us and also he wanted to go to chervonograd so we grabbed him after lunch and left his companion to the loving hands of the branch president and the ap's who made him their assistant to the assistants. 

So going to chervonograd we take a bus for an hour and a half and on the bus we met this group of kids ages 11-13 who were going home from a volleyball tournament and we had an American football and they were so interested so we talked to them and set up a time to play with them on Thursday and teach them how to play. 

Thursday we had a fun day we played football American and European with the kids we met the day before and we had a really good time but we all got sun burnt because we were so wight. We also met a girl from a different town who was visiting her grandma and the elders from her town called us and gave us her number and we called it and spent some time talking with here and here boyfriend and it was good they showed us some churches there and it was fun and next time we will be meeting her grandma. 

Friday we came home from our trip and got ready for the activity in which i needed all the pictures which i got and thank you that was perfect buy hey one elder had a baby picture and i told him i was way more attractive as a baby but i couldn't prove it so if you could send me a picture of me when i was a baby that would be awesome.

We had the activity and like 40 people showed up which was way more than we thought so we didn't have enough pancakes or so we thought but the sisters did they made some the night before and thank goodness because they people loved it and they loved getting to know the missionaries more it was a way good activity. 

But in the slide show i put the picture of us indexing together and our family history specialist came up to me afterward and asked me if i liked indexing and i said yes and we talked about how when our ward had a goal of like a million names or something like that and she said we need to do that here so she wants me to help her so maybe if you all have some ideas on activities to get people interested in indexing that would be awesome. 

Saturday was normal we had sports day and i was already soar from our football trip and then we planned the week and then had our missionary meeting and the mcl and the branch pres. just talked the whole time and we really didnt get anything done. 

Sunday we had a really good day we had church and one of my friends who is less active came and i invited him to eat lunch with us and so we ran home brought the food back and we ate together and he is doing better. We then went to this less active woman who has been having some problems with the church lately and she wasn't home but as we were leaving she came up and we had a good meeting and she was like i prayed for you all to come and it was a good talk and i think it helped her. 

Well this week should be fun with the new mission president coming in and us having a mission conference it will be fun andthankyou for all your prayers they really do help. 

Love Elder Naumann

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