Ukraine week 6: Transfers.....

Well this week was when we got out transfer information and that was scary for me cause our mission pres. is really random and spiritual when he chooses transfers for the missionary's and so i didn't know if i would be with my trainer for the full time i am supposed to be or if i would be leaving to be with someone else.

So i we started off this week very wet it rained for the first 3 days straight and i didn't have an umbrella or a jacket to keep me dry and that was fun we eventually found one and now i have a good umbrella but it took us way too long to get one and i was very wet the first couple days and now it has stooped though. And also on Monday we got our new oven installed and that was good it rocksand i love it but yeah, we did a lot of area book work this week too cause of the rain, no one was outside so we just called people and i don't know if i have told you but i have been trying to contact that family that sister rogers knew here in Lviv and we have had no success but then we called them on Tuesday and the woman on the other side of the phone said she didn't know anyone from America and that was sad cause she then hung up.. so that was weird we still planned on going to their house and see if it was the right number cause it was a home number and those things change all the time so it may be wrong. 

We have also been having alot of good lessons with our one investigator with a baptismal date and he has been showing up not as drunk or not drunk at all but he just doesn't understand and i think its because he speaks Russian better then he can Ukrainian and that has been hard but we decide to drop his baptismal date cause he is defiantly not ready but that's fun but sad too.

so this week we have really been focusing on finding cause we haven't had anyone new cause random things come up so we have been contacting like crazy and also tracking its one of my favorite things to do especially when people are nice to you and that is not very often but we talked to some really good people none of them are  new investigators and i found out that my least favorite statement ever is god is one.... yeah kyle and Erik I'm sure you love that one too but yeah dumb. 

so on Thursday i had the pleasure of going to ivano - frankievesk  with elder Hansen our zone leader, so the reason i had to go with him is cause apparently i missed a national registration here in lviv and i had to get it done in ivano so that was fun i thought it was going to be for registration down there and that i would be transferred and that kind of freaked me out cause the only missionaries that weren't dying down there were only  3 transfers in and almost as new as me but that didn't happen all is well but i spent Thursday and Friday there with elder kashawagie he is one of the missionaries that is dying and man is he a stud and that was fun and all is well it was fun to be down there.

OK so on our way to the apartment in ivano and my comp. calls me and tells me that he is at the referrals house that i got from sister rogers and i was like what why did you go without me, they got in by telling them that he knew sister rogers and then they got in and she said so tell me about Erin and her life and her kids and they were like well this is weird we actually don't know her so then he called me and i talked with them for a while and that was fun and stuff but they wanted to know more about sister rogers so i told them all i knew but it wasn't much so if sister rogers wants to pass on a message to this family i will be glad to do it so yeah that was dumb so we are going back again and talking to them with me there so yeah.....

Yeah so that's about all that happened is transfers and the exchange so I'm glad to hear that all of you are having a party at home and I'm praying for grandma, there is a woman here that reminds me of her and it makes me happy every time i see her so tell her i love her.

Elder naumann 3 ( according to Erik that is right so yeah)

Ukraine week 5:Little Gnome

So this week was fun, normal but fun. First we began this week with going over to this american family for family night and it was a suprise party for these 2 girls they brought over here to watch their kids and that was fun they always make great food it was a birthday party and a going away party as well the 2 girls had to go home because of school.

So on tuesday we had a good district meeting and after that we went on exchanges with the zone leaders who are the other elders in our district so me and elder hansen rocked it up and we had 1 member lesson with this guy named Ihor and he is cool he speaks english and helped me alot with language and he is fun to talk to.

Also this week me and elder olsen did alot of area book work which is calling and trying to recontact old droped investigators and so i was doing most of the calling and talking but it was good and good language experience for me but it was sad to go throught the area book and see that some of these people hadent been contacted for 3 years yeah so we got about 10 people in but there is still alot to work through to get everyone called.

This week we have been running more than before and i can now keep up with everyone else and its good and i have so far lost 25 pounds since i have been on the mission and that is just crazy and i can feel it too i just dont know where it all was and has now gone its crazy.

So this thursday we went to this young men and young womans activity and that was way fun we only hav 2 young women and 1 young man but it was still fun we went under this castle where there is a museum and it was fun but kind of lame but aperently the tour guide was talking so fast no one could understand him and then we all went up the tower of L'viv and that was 300 stairs to the top it was fun because i walk up that or more every day so it wasnt a problem for me but then we went down into this creapy church and we took pictures and left really fast but yeah this day was packed with fun so then that same day me and elder olsen went to a cafe and saw this girl painting in the street and she was painting the street and it was awesome so we went over to see the painting and we started to talk with her there was also a man there and he was looking at the painting too but we thought they were together because we were talking to her in english which she understood alittle and russian which we knew alittle and so this guy was helping us but then the walked over to this curb and sort of fell and layed down and passed out 3 times and that was weird and when he woke up he said he was fine and walked away this girl then prociedes to start cring and that was aquward so we asked her if she was ok and she packed up and left right then.

 And then we were walking around and we sat down on a bench and this drunk girl starts talking to us and she wasnt having any of the bible or the book of mormon and elder olsen thought she was posessed and i do too know thinking about it. Then we went to a hospital to talk with this sick member and give her a blessing and that was good to see her and talk with her. And then we headed back to english at the church and there was only one guy who showed up but then we sat down and worked on our poster and then these 2 guys who had been contacted by missionaries on the street came in and wanted us to teach them so of corse we did and right in the middle they asked us to speak in english and so we did these guys asked questions and listened and they were way cool they both have families and degrees which is rare in Ukraine and good jobs so we talked with them for a long time and were way late getting home our bad.

We are meeting with this guy sasha who i have told you about and we finaly got him to church........... he was drunk and his member wife was drunk and so we kicked them out and that was dumb, why do people drink alchohol? It only wrecks lifes and we cant help him until he stops drinking thats all we are working on with him.

Oh also this week was my 1 month mark in ukraine and what did i get on the day a new oven because ours is brokeded and so of corse we had to carry it all the way up to our apt. and thats right 96 stairs to the top woo hoo and that was good we havent used it yet because its not ready but we will get it to work soon and that was fun and so this week one of the zone leaders elder brathewate got a call from pres. saying that he is the new assistant woo hoo but that is kind of sad i only got to spend less than a transfer with him but they also have having people break in to their house because they lost their keys so we think its a member so they got a new key and everything is good but we have been sleeping over at their house to be their guard dogs.

But yeah thats my week im excited shawn finaly got his new gun and am way excited to shoot it i bet its fun and macey break a leg if you havent already :) 

Love Elder Naumann 

Ps. Kim it is alright for you to email me thats not against the rules but i cant email you directly but i can send you my general e mail and my mom now knows how to send me mail so just ask her for the way to do it 

Ukraine Week 3: BTR

So i dont know if i have told you about boba tetiana but i will now, so we go over to bobas house to give her the sacrement every sunday.    she is a russian (bob) who got baptized about 6 years ago and wants the sacrement but cant make it to church so we go there. She is a  funny old lady and always makes us food and we have to eat it and she always wants to take pictures. But she also gives all the missionaries nicknames which is funny because everyone wants one so i had to figure out my name so first some of the other missionaries told me my name from brat roman which they were all different first it was the russian word for tubby and then it was a postal wagon and granted these names were all in russian so i had no idea if they were bad like derogatory so it was whatever but then i went this last week and she told me my nickname is BTR it is a russian war machine and is very funny so you should totally send me a picture of that if you can and the othere pictures you told me you had for me, that would be cool too. 

So this last week we had to go up to kiev to go to this leadership conferance which my comp. had to go to cause he is our district leader so we went up there and i got there and i knew that i would be contacting but with who thats the question, there were only a few missionaries there without companions so i found elder nielson who yes is just as green as me and we both dont know ukrainian or kiev so we were about to leave and try to figure things out but then another elder came and said i dont have a comp. can i go with you two and of corse we said yes. So this elders name is elder anderson and he is a russian speaking elder who is in kiev which is good because he knew kiev so we were walking around contacting. And this is a story of how hard satan works against us. So we met this lady who we talked to for about 10 min and it was good to do that then we asked if we could pray and she said yes so we did and we were still talking with her for about 2 min and then this crazy woman came out of nowhere and starting attacking us verbaly and saying that mormons are a curse to ukraine and that we are brain washed kids who are working with the devil and all this crap and then the lady  who we prayed with was like what so then this woman started talking in ukrainian which was the weirdest things ever and she was just baging us but this lady who we prayed with was having none of it and she was defending us, then we walked away just so we could be away but she followed us and was swearing at us and just attacking us. Then elder anderson said ok we get it you told us all the stuff you hate about us is there anything else you have to say or can we leave then she shut up and we walked away. so yeah satan is working very hard on that lady we prayed with so hopefuly the missionaries can talk to her again. 

But yeah that was friday and then we got back saturday and we went to an activaty with the elders quarm which was awesome we played soccer and ate lots of meat that was shishkabobed and over an open fire it was so good we had a blased. 

It was planed to go up to the mountains and party for a cupple of hours but some people coped out and it was just in lviv but it was still way fun. we ate this meat that looked unfamiliar, the reason was that it was horse meat yeah horse meat it was so good they did a really good job and then on the way back to the church we walked by this kvas stand, it is basicaly the ukrainian equivalent of root beer but it tastes nothing like root beer it taists like carbinated bread water yeah its just as gross as it sounds but everyone says that it eventually tastes good but i dont believe them. 

Earlyer this week we also went chalk drawing in a park by the university, we drew the plan of salvation and it was fun and looked way cool and lots of people stoped to find out what we were doing so that was cool to see the results right away so yeah that was good.

ok mom i know your woried about me and my size and how i wont be able to do anything because i wont be able to function. This is not the case, this mission is known for the people my size by the end of their mission having lost 60 to 70 pounds. yeah i know thats crazy, its because we walk around so much and we eat about 1 meal a day and thats why we all lose so much weight and i want you to know that since i have gone on my mission i have lost about 20 pounds and 15 of it has been here in ukraine, and its going to drop fast cause we run 3 times a week and exsersise every day so its good the pounds are just falling off and its good.

This last week we have been working with our 2 investigators who are both strugaling, one lives 70 k away and the other one is bypoler and needs constant help. we are trying to help the less active members aswell, we went and visited this guy called ivan who lives about 40 min away on a marshutka and then another 2 miles of walking distance. so we are going to visit him and we get on the bus and there are no windows and no seats so i stood up for 40 min on a bus and it was about 100 degrees so that was way fun i sweat like a gallon of water and it was gross.

After we got back from kiev we had a new zone leader cause elder hail got called to be a branch pres. in chernefcey so it was kind of weird we werent even halfway into the transfer and he got called to leave. But elder hansen is way cool. We also got an extra sister here because the mission pres loves the sisters, she requested to serve in lviv cause she hadent been here her whole mission but she really wanted to so pres. obeyed her wish so she will be here for about 10 days which will be fun. Yesterday we had a sunday meal with everyone and it was for elder mores birthday he turned 65 years old and that was way cool he is a fun guy. 

 Well im glad to hear that you all had such a fun time in yellowstone and I miss you all and pray for you all the time so be safe and keep having fun live life and do all there is to offer.

Love elder naumann

oh and my misionary mall belt broke and i bought a new one so yeah if you could see if you could get me a new one that would be awesome and i will try to send you the picture and the address of the mission home but if they just give you the new belt dont worry about sending it to me its not a big deal. 

Ukraine Week 1:Львів‏

Well im here in ukraine yeah i know its freaking me out too. well so the flights were all good the seats were cheap but what can you expect. we got into ukraine at about 12 in the afternoon and got all our luggage which was good then we met our mission pres. who is way cool by the way.

 Then he drove us to the temple which is so awesome and right next to the temple so we had some food and then he called you which im sure was weird but yeah he is way cool but then we sat in a room for like 2 hours while we went over stuff then went to the hotel which was way nice except no ac yeah most homes in ukraine dont have ac including our appartments yeah............. but it was good then he told us where we were going which im now in leviv and man this place is beautiful. it has great architecture but its only problem is that no one cares what it looks like so its a bit trashy but its good. so after that day we met our new trainers and mine is named elder olsen he is way cool and we have a lot in common. we took a traine from kiev to leviv which was a night train and it was fun... but then we got in and i saw my new apartment which is 10 stories up and it only has stairs yeah..... and then we ran and its been good to do more excersise i have already lost 12 pounds in like 5 day from not eating and walking and running more. so i get to the area and its kind of dead we have 1 investigator and we are about to drop him so we do a bunch of fun stuff that day but we didnt have any food and we still dont. but it was a fun kind of freaky day with lots of unknowns. the next day saturday we went to go have a lesson with an investigator and have sports day at the church but we got there and they were not there but brat roman was there so we talked to him for a while ( so brat file if you read this.
 i have to tell you something you got to stop telling crazy stories of brat roman he is a member of the branch pres. and a really strong member and he doesnt really like when new missionaries know who he is from his stories that make him sound crazy so if you could stop telling the green book story that would be awesome and i think he would really appreciate it but he is so cool to hang around with)

Ok so after we had sports day which we didnt really have me and my comp. got a call to come teach this guy who is a cousin of a member like at 1 and it was already 12 and we had to take a bus that would take and hour to get out to this guys house. so we got there and called brat molonose who then said that he said to come at 3 so we went to work and waited for him and he never showed up and then we called him and his phone was off and the phones here are weird i will have to tell you about them later. but then we went back to work until about 4:45 and then he called us and said he was here then we drove another 15 min to this guys house and got there and started teaching and this member brat molonose is famous for thinking the missionaries are incompitant so he basicaly just taught the whole lessons but we have a baptism date on the 25 of next month but the lesson was about an hour and 15 min long. to long of a lesson if you ask me or any other missionaries. 


so after that we were out for like until 8:30 at night and we had another meeting with another member which was cool. so alot of the time i understand nothing but thats ok because i try. then came sunday and then we went to church and it was way fun i got to say my testimony in ukrainian which is a language i dont know but it was ok and all of the members are way cool and fun to be around and i already love them.

 we then ate at the zone leaders house and all i want you to know mom is that i eat so much food that i typically dont eat so you should be proud. then we called brat roman and we went over to this bobuskas house and she was cool we got there and said are you hungry and we said no but she brought us out lots of borsh and i have never had borsh and i had just ate and so i tried my hardest to eat it and  i got all the way through and she then brought out tea and it was gross and i drank that too it was hard to do all of that with a full stomach but it was fun.

 we then took lots of pictures and she if funny and then brat roman brought out pictures of old missionaries and i knew some of them from the mtc that was fun. then today we had a good day we went to this park called the sacred grove that had alot of cool huts there and we then ate out and now im here but i love all of you and love hearing from you. oh and mom if you get a call from a random man, dont worry he is just in ukraine for buisness and he is from linden and is a way cool guy but if you dont thats ok too.

MTC Week 10:Not P-day‏

Ok so i know its not p-day family dont freak out my branch pres. said it would be ok to send a short e mail before i left so im going to.

So as you know im leaving the last time i told you my travil plans they were a remembering and not me taking it from the paper so i will tell you the details now.I leave tomorrow (tuesday) Ok so they want us to be up at 3 and leave by 5 so we will bus to the airport at 5 and be there around 6 ish then we will check our bags and i will hopefuly make a phone call our flight leaves at 8:30 so we will probably have about 1 hour to talk if we are fast in the airport. then we arive in new york at 3:11 and will be there for 2 hours until 5:40 so if i cant make the call in salt lake i will in new york but if that is the case i dont know the time diferance but i will just plan on calling mom and then dad so we can all talk if you are all at work. then we fly from 5:40pm to 8:25 am to vienna, Austria yeah cool huh but we leave there at 9:45 and fly right into kiev and will be there at about noon the next day. we will all be super jet laged but it will be fun and way cool to just be out there. then we dont have a p day until the next monday and it will be the next time you hear from me ok.

Ok so im sending home a package today with some stuff and a few letters along with hopefuly the paper you wanted me to get signed.

Yeah im just freaking excited to be out there its sad to see so many of my friends leave but its ok because thats what a mission is So I love you all and wish the best and i will see you in not to long..........

MTC Week 8: Apostle day for real‏

Ok so this week has gone by really fast and i dont know what to think of it. i literaly have 13 days left until im leaving to ukraine..... how freaky is that and not only that but we celibrated our 2 month mark on the 25th its going by so fast and the language is coming good. We teach investigators like 8 to 10 times in a week and its getting really easy to teach the gospel. before this point we would be studding like 2 hours just to be able to read the words we wanted to say off of a pa[er but now we plan for like 20 min and its usualy spiritual stuff it is really nice, but i know when i get to ukraine that i will probably feel so lost and not be able to speak to anyone and it will be so crazy but im really excited.

Ok so the title this week like i said before was prophet week and it wasnt really but yesterday was apostle day the whole day everyone was antecipating one of the apostles would be there for the evning devotional, we all were waiting in line just so we could see one of them in the same room, dont worry i made it in barely and i had to wait in a line for like 1 hour with 3000 other missionaries in suits it was really hot. so they never anounce the speaker ever but we all knew. It was L Tom Perry again and he talked the whole time about the statictics of the church it was an ok talk and it was cool to see all the #s of the church but it wasnt very inspiring but thats ok because there were 9 other apostles only Packard and oaks i think werent there it was cool and i got a picture i will have to sent it home.

So this week has been a hastle with all the new mission pres. one of the buildings was taken up all week and its the one where we eat so the food lines were so long, some of the comments that came out of it were really funny like, its like disneyland but for a bowl of cereal that was my favorite another was, i feel like im in the great depression also a good one but it hasnt been that bad. so erik dont worry i didnt see your mission pres. do you really think that if i didnt see the prophet i would really look for your mission pres. nope but thats ok i still love you and it seems like its a good thing.

Ok so this week one of the other districts is getting interviewed by someone from new york times yeah cool right out of the whole mtc they chose 1 district and they are right next to us so i want you to look for that when it comes out they speak russion and some of there names are Elder barret, wilding, christionson, and whitimore. the sisters are sister young, kafolace i think and angelo and i forget the other sister but its way cool that they get that oportunity to do that.

Well im the new district leader for the next week and a half and this next week is our last real week and its not going to be a normal week we have the 4th of july coming up and  we have a devotional for that so yeah 3 devotionals next week and i have in field orientaton which should be fun, im going to send home my sd card and i need it back as soon as possible and then i will send my other card home but then i need that as soon as possible.

I got a new pair of scriptures and it has been the funest thing, i never thought that it would be fun to get new scriptures and just study and mark them up but it is the funest thing ever and i look forward to another 2 years where i can do that.

Oh thanks for the packages it was the greatest day all the people in my room and in the rooms around me got a package and so it was package day and the joy was overflowing from our room. i love all of you and i think that i have 2 more times i can write to you in the mtc so look forward to lots of letters and then none for like the next like 2 years but thats ok i love you everyone.

Elder naumann

MTC Week 7: Prophet day‏

Ok so this week has gone well there wasnt really anything that happened there was fathers day and the guy who came and spoke to us wished us future happy fathers day which was funny. And all i have to say is im never sending stuff home again because everytime i do the person who i send a package to is never there to recieve it, i sent dad a package like on friday and it will have probably have goten there today or sometime this week and he is at scout camp but i guess thats ok the preasant is really good and i hope you love it dad. ok yeah i recieved the super awesome package this last week and it was good i didnt get why on earth you sent me those glasses things from the 70's but its cool, i ate all the food already well me and my companions. Ok so the reason for the title is that i read eriks letter and he said that he was getting a new mission presidant, and where do all the mission presidents go befor they go to their areas thats right the mtc. So maybe i can meet eriks new mission pres. this next week and tell him to watch out for my freaking amazing brother. Yeah i know what your thinking is your mission pres. coming in this week too.... no he is not our pres. has been out a year so he will come home when i do and by home i meen germany because thats where he is from, not only are the new mission pres. coming like all the prophets and aposles are coming on saturday and we get to hear from them like 4 times in the next week which is awesome, i saw ave yesterday for the last time in 2 years and it was nice having him here for the 3 out of the 12 weeks that im here, but it was funny because i was like i will miss you when i see the prophet and all the apostles then i huged him and said goodbye. I know im the luckest person here for being here to see all of them. Ok so there really isnt anything to write about so i will just name some good things that i did this week went to the temple and did a session and it was fun because our teacher gave us some names to do and that always fun, we get to do it again this week, cool right. Dad i hope you have fun this week at scout camp up in schofield, one of my comps worked up there for 3 years and loved it and said it was a really good camp, and thats way exciting that you get 3 days paied off of work that is a reall blessing. Ok so yesterday i got into my scriptures and i was trying to find out what the urim and thummim where and what roll they played in the prophets lifes and their reviltion and i came accross this stuff about the temple and i realised that when brother schow came to our house i wasnt really listning and that if i could get those papers that he had and that i think he gave me but i must have lost them, that would be really awesome.

Ok so yeah it would be awesome if i could get a small preach my gosple and some music to preform( preferably in ukrainian) but yeah i think the small preach my gosple would go really well with my small new scriptures that i am going to buy tomorrow and start marking like crazy. You know something that i always took for granted was scripture study and how i would just put it aside because i was tired or i just didnt want to read but i was an idiot and i cant believe i did that. In preach my gosple it says to study the scriptures at a desk not your bed and to read it daily and that we arent aloud to get anyone baptized until they read the bom daily and i thought, man i would have been a terable investigator. so my chalange to all of you is to love your scriptures not just the book of mormon but the bible pearl of great price and also docteran and covanants not only to love them but to study them as if your life depended on it get a new set of scriptures and mark them write in them get a study journal and write insperation you get because that is the most pure way to gain a testimony of god is to read his words and to study them at a desk not your bed.

I have so little time left in the mtc like 20 days do you know how fast that goes and how much i wish that i was out there now and how much i wish i had like 5 more weeks because i dont know about you but while im in the mtc time has flown by and i dont feel like im ready but i just want to be out there because i know the lord will make a way for me to do his work.

Well i love you all and will write you soon probably today a few letters but if not i love you and goodbye

Elder Naumann In

(i love you erik)