These are just some cool statues and temples and the pciture
of the sign on our church. Just some cool things that I saw.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
Week 3 In the
Ukraine 7/30/2012
Dear Family and Friends,
Well I love you all so much and I know that through your prayers and support that the Lord is helping me through my time here in the Ukraine. I love it here and it’s crazy to think that another week has already come and gone. It’s just interesting to me to see how quickly time does go. It’s true what they say, that days go by weeks but weeks go by days. Things are moving a long here. There still is a lot of adjusting to do and figuring out what everything is and who people are. That is probably one of the hardest parts, besides understanding them. But that will come.
I have been eating a lot of new foods. I had some Borsch (Hot borscht, the kind most popular in the majority of cultures, is a
hearty soup. It is almost always made with a broth made of beets. It usually
contains heavy starchy vegetables including potatoes and beets, but may also
contain carrots, spinach, and meat. It may be eaten as a meal in itself, but is
usually eaten as an appetizer with thick, dark bread.[citation needed] ) and
it was actually super good. Dear Family and Friends,
Well I love you all so much and I know that through your prayers and support that the Lord is helping me through my time here in the Ukraine. I love it here and it’s crazy to think that another week has already come and gone. It’s just interesting to me to see how quickly time does go. It’s true what they say, that days go by weeks but weeks go by days. Things are moving a long here. There still is a lot of adjusting to do and figuring out what everything is and who people are. That is probably one of the hardest parts, besides understanding them. But that will come.
I have started to eat tomatoes and onions and all this other stuff that I have never tried because I was afraid to. So if the way I am expanding my food is any indication on how my mission will change me, I seem to be headed in the right direction.
The members are super nice and understanding when I try to talk to them. I am just doing what I can to get acquainted with the members and build their trust in me. I want to help them out and also want them to be happy to help us out when we have investigators. We spend a lot of our days on the streets contacting people. We have gotten a ton of contacts, but just a lot of them have been pretty busy with things, so we have not had a ton of lessons. But that’s okay. In my eyes I hope every person I talk to, whether they except me or not, sees me as being someone nice. If they reject what I have to say, I just wish them a happy day and just move on because that’s all we can do and maybe they will accept it later on. There are people here ready to hear the gospel and as long as we keep working hard we will find those people.
Currently we have an investigator who has been investigating for over 5 years now. Yeah a long time and apparently he has progressed a lot these last couple of months since my trainer has been working with him and he came to church yesterday so we are moving in the right direction with him. We have quite a few lessons planned for this coming week so I hope that they all stick with it and hear our message. I know it will change their lives if they will listen with an open heart. I love being here and talking to the people, even though I don’t really understand them all that well, I do my best to just love them.
We ran into a few guys last night who were a little drunk but we talked with them for a little while and I actually had a conversation with one of the less drunk guys. It was really cool to see that I am learning this language and I can talk with people even with the little that I know right now. That was a great thing for me and lifted me up. One of the things we like to do is, when we see an African, we immediately go up to them because most of the time they speak English. They are very friendly and willing to listen and yesterday we had the opportunity to talk to a guy from Nigeria. He knew exactly who we were and seemed interested but he’ll be leaving for a month so when he gets back we will give him a call. We also met an Indian who said he had friends who were interested in Christ but they also are gone until the end of next month, so hopefully we will be busy at the end of August. It’s crazy to think it is August already. Well almost August.
I know that the Lord is always with me and will never leave me and no matter what comes my way he will be there to lift me back up and help me get through all of my troubles and trials. I know that the atonement is real and that Jesus Christ is the Savior and redeemer of the world. I know that the Book of Mormon is a correct book and is another Testament of Jesus Christ and is 100% true. I know that Joseph Smith restored the true gospel back to the earth and I know we have a living prophet now Thomas S. Monson and that he leads and guides our church today through inspiration from Our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that this church is true and if anyone has a sincere desire to know that if what I say is true…….. Ask our loving Heavenly Father in Heaven, I promise you that he will answer you and if you have already done so, do it again because we can always build our testimonies stronger and stronger. We should never stop building our testimonies. I am grateful for this gospel and the blessings of happiness and joy and hope for a better world (ether 12:4). This gospel blesses families and families can and will be together forever when they enter into the everlasting covenant of temple marriage. I love you all and wish you all the best and hope you have a wonderful day and continue to see all the blessings the Lord has given you in your life. You are all amazing and know that I love you all so much. Thank you for all that you do for me!
Love Elder Litchfield
Monday, July 23, 2012
Week 2 Ukraine
Dear family and friends,
This week went by super fast. I feel like I was just sitting here last week writing about what had just went on and now I’m kind of drawing a blank………… but a few things did happen. I will start with the funny stuff. It may be more interesting to start with.
I’m not really sure what day it was because all the days seem so similar, but we went out and we were street contacting around this area I had not been to it yet and it was fairly far from our apartment and we started walking through this area where these kids were obviously drinking and smoking. They kind of surrounded us and my companion started talking to some of them and then I started talking to some others. It was a little difficult to communicate and after a few minutes we decided it was best to leave. So we left, but two of them followed us and were talking with us. Then one dropped off and it was us and one other very drunk 20 year old and so we were being nice because we had just talked about patience and he followed us for about 15 minutes. Then we thought to ourselves……… we need to get some work done, so we started to walk faster and figuring he would drop off and get tired, but no he kept on following us and to make the long story short he followed us for about 45 minutes. It was a good first encounter with an intoxicated person! Ha Ha. But on a spiritual note, after that it had been about 35 minutes of him following us and I really wanted to just talk to normal people. So I prayed that he would slowly get farther away or something would come up and we could get away and not even kidding two minutes later he stopped to talk to some other people. Then when we turned around again he was gone. I know Heavenly Father answers prayers………………..even the small ones.
Also on the note of prayer……….…. we were doing some real tracking of door knocking ………well door bell ringing and that day before we left we prayed that we would find at least one new investigators. We walked and it was about 8:30 pm, a half hour before we are supposed to be home and we had just given out a brochure to a man who was about 40 yrs old and he would have been perfect. He had a nice family and everything, but he said no. So we were thinking we could head back now……..it’s pretty late and we are a little ways away from home, but instead we knocked on the next door, just for one last try and sure enough the lady let us in. She agreed to meet with us again and that was another answer to our prayers. It was so cool…………. she talked most of the time, but she said we could talk the next time.
Now on another funny note, I was walking and we had only been out for maybe 15 minutes…….. When I got a nice surprise of bird poop on my head! Ha ha! It was not very pleasant, but I quickly wiped it off and just kept on walking and just ignored it. I felt it was a bit of a trial, because if I had gone back to wash it out we would have missed 3 opportunities to talk with people who seemed fairly interested in the gospel. Even if they don’t accept the gospel, we at least set them up for the next missionaries who may come their direction and that would have never happened if I had made a big deal out of something small.
The Lord is preparing His children all over the world and we may not be the ones to baptize them but we are part of that process of helping them come unto Christ and receive this restored gospel. We are the critical link to help people know that we are servants of the Lord and the only thing we want to do is build their faith in Jesus Christ, so that one day they can take the step and get baptized and return to live with Our Heavenly Father again. I know this work is true and that this church is true and I am grateful to be a part of building the kingdom of God.
I love you all and wish you all the best.
Dear family and friends,
This week went by super fast. I feel like I was just sitting here last week writing about what had just went on and now I’m kind of drawing a blank………… but a few things did happen. I will start with the funny stuff. It may be more interesting to start with.
I’m not really sure what day it was because all the days seem so similar, but we went out and we were street contacting around this area I had not been to it yet and it was fairly far from our apartment and we started walking through this area where these kids were obviously drinking and smoking. They kind of surrounded us and my companion started talking to some of them and then I started talking to some others. It was a little difficult to communicate and after a few minutes we decided it was best to leave. So we left, but two of them followed us and were talking with us. Then one dropped off and it was us and one other very drunk 20 year old and so we were being nice because we had just talked about patience and he followed us for about 15 minutes. Then we thought to ourselves……… we need to get some work done, so we started to walk faster and figuring he would drop off and get tired, but no he kept on following us and to make the long story short he followed us for about 45 minutes. It was a good first encounter with an intoxicated person! Ha Ha. But on a spiritual note, after that it had been about 35 minutes of him following us and I really wanted to just talk to normal people. So I prayed that he would slowly get farther away or something would come up and we could get away and not even kidding two minutes later he stopped to talk to some other people. Then when we turned around again he was gone. I know Heavenly Father answers prayers………………..even the small ones.
Also on the note of prayer……….…. we were doing some real tracking of door knocking ………well door bell ringing and that day before we left we prayed that we would find at least one new investigators. We walked and it was about 8:30 pm, a half hour before we are supposed to be home and we had just given out a brochure to a man who was about 40 yrs old and he would have been perfect. He had a nice family and everything, but he said no. So we were thinking we could head back now……..it’s pretty late and we are a little ways away from home, but instead we knocked on the next door, just for one last try and sure enough the lady let us in. She agreed to meet with us again and that was another answer to our prayers. It was so cool…………. she talked most of the time, but she said we could talk the next time.
Now on another funny note, I was walking and we had only been out for maybe 15 minutes…….. When I got a nice surprise of bird poop on my head! Ha ha! It was not very pleasant, but I quickly wiped it off and just kept on walking and just ignored it. I felt it was a bit of a trial, because if I had gone back to wash it out we would have missed 3 opportunities to talk with people who seemed fairly interested in the gospel. Even if they don’t accept the gospel, we at least set them up for the next missionaries who may come their direction and that would have never happened if I had made a big deal out of something small.
The Lord is preparing His children all over the world and we may not be the ones to baptize them but we are part of that process of helping them come unto Christ and receive this restored gospel. We are the critical link to help people know that we are servants of the Lord and the only thing we want to do is build their faith in Jesus Christ, so that one day they can take the step and get baptized and return to live with Our Heavenly Father again. I know this work is true and that this church is true and I am grateful to be a part of building the kingdom of God.
I love you all and wish you all the best.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Monday, July 16, 2012
Week 1 IN UKRAINE
7/16/2012
Dear family and friends,
Dear family and friends,
I have been in the Ukraine for
5 days and it has been a lot to take it. It has been quite the experience
let me tell you. It was crazy first of all leaving Utah Tuesday morning at 5 am
and then getting to the Ukraine Wednesday evening at 3:30. It’s a
10 hour time difference from Olympia to the Ukraine. We were able to see
the area a little bit on Thursday morning because Wednesday we ate with
President Campero and got oriented and all that good stuff. We had
another little training thing on Thursday and then we had transfer meetings and
I found out where I would be going and who my companion was going to be. It was
just a whole big fun time with a lot of missionaries that are here in Donetsk.
So for the next 12 weeks I will be in a city called Lugansk and my companion is Elder Strandling who only has 3 transfers left so I may end up killing him (when you send a missionary home) but he is great. My companion knows the language super well and he is super nice too. He’s a good cook………. that’s a major bonus. There has been a lot going on but most of it was meetings and traveling to my area. It took about 4 hours to get from center of Donetsk to Lugansk…….. it was a fun bus ride.
Our schedule here in Ukraine is a little different than other places. We get up at 6:30 am and we’re out the door at 7 am. We are door contacting for an hour and a half, and then we come back to our place. We exercise, eat and then do personal study until 3 pm with lunch in there somewhere. Then we go back out and contact some more if we don’t have any lessons planned. Yeah it is always a fun start to the day. I honestly can say I don’t mind getting rejected by almost everyone……… because I start to say something, they may or may not stop and listen, then I say a few more words, then I cannot understand them beyond that. So it works out pretty well for me……… all I hear is “never” so it’s not too bad. They want all the new missionaries starting all the conversations so I start it and try to get people to stop and listen then have my companion take over since he understands the people better. It’s sweet, but I need to start comprehending better and learning more words, so I can communicate better.
I gave my first lesson in the Ukraine on Friday and you will not believe it, but it was in English! ha ha There are quite a few English people here from like Africa, so they go to school in the Ukraine and we have a few that we teach. Next week I think we have 3 lessons that we will teach and they will be in Russian except maybe one, so it will be a fun experience I have definitely hit the ground running, because I just went out and tried to talk to everyone and we have gotten 4 or 5 contacts so far. That is pretty good. We will try to get them to be new investigators, but we will have to wait and see what happens.
Oh boy, Sunday was a tough day but it was a great day too! ha ha We didn’t do a whole lot in the morning since church is at 10 am. We went to church and my head was hurting by the end of sacrament since again it’s hard to comprehend all the language. I talked to an older sister in the ward and tried to comprehend what she was saying and I tried to have a conversation with her. It was fun smiling and nodding my head like I knew what was going on. But of course it was very limited, I said a few sentences. I understood a little of what she said and then she just talked the rest of the time….. ha. ha Then there were lots of classes at church and they all talk so fast. It was hard to keep up, so my head was “fried” after church. After church we went and did tracking for about 5 hours in the super nice hot sun. Since it was so hot, not a lot of people were outside, but it was still a nice walk with my companion. Maybe we sparked someone’s interest…….. You never know!
So for the next 12 weeks I will be in a city called Lugansk and my companion is Elder Strandling who only has 3 transfers left so I may end up killing him (when you send a missionary home) but he is great. My companion knows the language super well and he is super nice too. He’s a good cook………. that’s a major bonus. There has been a lot going on but most of it was meetings and traveling to my area. It took about 4 hours to get from center of Donetsk to Lugansk…….. it was a fun bus ride.
Our schedule here in Ukraine is a little different than other places. We get up at 6:30 am and we’re out the door at 7 am. We are door contacting for an hour and a half, and then we come back to our place. We exercise, eat and then do personal study until 3 pm with lunch in there somewhere. Then we go back out and contact some more if we don’t have any lessons planned. Yeah it is always a fun start to the day. I honestly can say I don’t mind getting rejected by almost everyone……… because I start to say something, they may or may not stop and listen, then I say a few more words, then I cannot understand them beyond that. So it works out pretty well for me……… all I hear is “never” so it’s not too bad. They want all the new missionaries starting all the conversations so I start it and try to get people to stop and listen then have my companion take over since he understands the people better. It’s sweet, but I need to start comprehending better and learning more words, so I can communicate better.
I gave my first lesson in the Ukraine on Friday and you will not believe it, but it was in English! ha ha There are quite a few English people here from like Africa, so they go to school in the Ukraine and we have a few that we teach. Next week I think we have 3 lessons that we will teach and they will be in Russian except maybe one, so it will be a fun experience I have definitely hit the ground running, because I just went out and tried to talk to everyone and we have gotten 4 or 5 contacts so far. That is pretty good. We will try to get them to be new investigators, but we will have to wait and see what happens.
Oh boy, Sunday was a tough day but it was a great day too! ha ha We didn’t do a whole lot in the morning since church is at 10 am. We went to church and my head was hurting by the end of sacrament since again it’s hard to comprehend all the language. I talked to an older sister in the ward and tried to comprehend what she was saying and I tried to have a conversation with her. It was fun smiling and nodding my head like I knew what was going on. But of course it was very limited, I said a few sentences. I understood a little of what she said and then she just talked the rest of the time….. ha. ha Then there were lots of classes at church and they all talk so fast. It was hard to keep up, so my head was “fried” after church. After church we went and did tracking for about 5 hours in the super nice hot sun. Since it was so hot, not a lot of people were outside, but it was still a nice walk with my companion. Maybe we sparked someone’s interest…….. You never know!
There is a lot of Russian going through my head right now. I love it here and I can’t wait to be able to communicate with the people and actually have conversations where I understand them. It will only take time. The Ukraine is a wonderful place and I am so excited to be here and bring people to the gospel. I hope that they can feel my love that I have for them and know that I have a testimony of this gospel. It’s hard when you only have about 20 seconds to talk to a person and spark their interest, but if they are prepared the spirit will touch them and tell them this is good.
I love you all so much and am so grateful for all of your support and love you all give to me. This is going to be a great two years and I can’t wait to continue to fill you in on all my progress and all that is going on in my life here in the Ukraine. I wish you all the best and hope you all have a wonderful day and continue to thank our Heavenly Father for all you have in this life. I love you and pray for. May God bless you all and may you always have his spirit to be with you.
LOVE ELDER LITCHFIELD
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Friday, July 13, 2012
July 11, 2012 From Elder Anthony Litchfield
I am here in Ukraine now, we arrived here safely. Everything
is going well. We will be going to the mission president’s home in
a few minutes. I don’t think they want these emails to be very long. But
I am here safely! You don’t need to worry about me, at least for
tonight! I have arrived! It is definitely a new experience……….
the first thing that was different was the traffic and that was weird.. They
are very aggressive drivers here. But all is well with me.
All is good and dandy. I love you so much and I’m
so happy that I was able to talk to you. I know it was not very long,
that was a little disappointing but it was good to hear your voices and talk to
you at least a little bit. I love you so much and can’t wait to
email a little bit longer on my P Day. I am not sure when that will be
but my guess is probably Monday. I will send you an email then. We will be
going to dinner at President Camperos house and then the assistants to the
president will take us around town to figure things out. It’s already
a new experience and it will just get better from here
. I love you and hope everything continues to go well at
home. Tell everyone hi for me as well.
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