Hello Again Family and friends,
I have now officially been on my mission for 4 months now, which just amazes me how fast that time has gone…… 1/6 is gone already just like that and I will be starting transfer number two today!!! Time really flies…….. It’s crazy.
I have a few questions if anyone would like to answer……….. it would be appreciated
1)does anyone have any good contacting ideas (mainly street contacting)
2)how about any phone call approaches when calling contacts (it’s pretty scary I have to say)
3)anyone know any good work outs for ab’s specifically or just in general………… just curious
ANYWAY!!! Wow this last week has been quite the week. It was just a very interesting one for a few reasons. So to start off I can’t remember what day it was but Elder Stradling and I we were doing some contacting and while we were out this guy stops us and is like "hello" (in English) so we stop and start to talk to him. His name is Anton and so we talk with him and he just is a super nice guy and he just wanted to talk a little English with us so we did. Then he got a phone call and said he had to go help his professor who was on his 5th wife and wanted to divorce her as well. Anton wanted to go tell his professor how important families were. So boom right there we were like here…… take this brochure about families. We got his contact information and we went on our way. We called him later and set up another appointment with him but unfortunately he was unable to make it and said he was really sorry but said he really still wanted to meet up. We thought okay cool, but a lot of time people say they will call and never do. BUT, he did call and we were walking around 8 and he texted us asking where we were so we met up and he introduced us to his wife and just starting firing questions at us that were intelligent. He wanted to know more about Americans and who we were as missionaries and just was a super “legit” guy and he told us his view on religion. He said basically that Christ is god’s son and that when we die we will be put into classes based on how we lived our lives. I mean this guy was so tight and so this next week Anton is who we will be focusing on mostly for a few reasons....
Transfers were on Thursday and Elder Stradling and I are still together and we had been told back and forth that there would be new Elders in our area and then the next day we were told, no they won’t, so we didn’t know what was going to happen. So transfers come we find out that we will get two new elders, which is awesome but they don’t have a place to stay yet. We were told they would stay in Donetsk until they found a place to stay, but also Elder Mika did not have a companion either because of one thing or another with a mini missionary (only 6 weeks for a non missionary who is preparing) so he was going to be in a threesome with Elder Stradling and I. We were excited about that, but then last minute they call and tell us that Elder Mika, Elder Harrison and Elder Mathias (greenie who was one group below me) will be coming and they will be a threesome. So we had to go pick them up from the train station and take all their stuff back to Elder Mikas place. That was on Friday morning so we get all that situated and Elder Strandling and I are a little disappointed because having three missionaries together are super fun (from what I have been told) so then Saturday comes around and things are just a little crazy.
Saturday there was a baptism and baptisms here are slightly different than in America or some other places. The baptism is at 10 am, we all meet at the church and at 10 am there was no one there. We seriously thought there was going to be no one there, but it ended up to be a super good turnout. We had about 20 people come and we all got shoved into this van and it was like a clown car when we finally all go out, people seem to keep coming out of the van forever. We drive about 30 minutes to this river where we will be having our baptism and most of the people who attended were not really dressed like they normally are in the states. It was a new experience for sure but it was great. They went into the river he was baptized and then it started to just pour down rain. We all jumped into the van and finished the program in the van. It was a little interesting but it was still pretty good, but it was just hectic getting everything situated and organized. However, it was amazing and he was confirmed yesterday so we now have one new member in our branch and another one coming in two weeks. It’s super exciting!
After the baptism we all go back home and begin studies since we missed it due to the baptism and as we are getting started with our studies we get a call from Elder Mika. He tells us..... wait for it.... we will be in a threesome with him and so Elder Stradling and I will be taking some of our stuff over to his apartment and then Elder Harrsion and Elder Mathias will stay at our apartment. We do another switcheroo and have to quickly get things together for who know how long. We could be together all transfer or for just a few weeks and the other Elders that are staying at our place are simply waiting for an apartment so until then we will be with Elder Mika until he gets a companion and if he gets a companion then we will move back into our apartment and have four missionaries there. Yeah, it’s been a little bit crazy these last few days with everything that has been going on.
Then to top it all off yesterday we had to be in by 7 o clock because it was miners day and two days before that it was Ukrainian Independence Day. There were lots of fireworks and lots of drunks these last few days so it was unsafe for missionaries to be out past 7 pm. Yeah, that is what has been going on here. Since the 2 new missionaries came, most of the investigators we were working with are now in their area. We have to basically start all over, which will be a great experience. I feel it will work better with having soon to be 6 missionaries here in Lugansk. Our area has gotten smaller and things are finally settled down and transfer number 2 is now on its way.
Mom here are the answers to your questions, but I figured a lot of people might be interested in the answers, but if not, I apologize ha ha
We do have a cell phone and I think most missions now have cell phones and so we are able to text others in our area about things that we need or they need to do and communicate pretty well so its super nice.
We are a 3-4 hour train ride away from the mission home roughly but the time also depends on the train we take some are faster some are slower
Which leads to the next question of how we get from place to place……….. Most of the time we walk everywhere since we are in the center area. It’s pretty much all within walking range but when we do have to go anywhere else we take a bus and their bus system is crazy here. They just jam as many people in as they can. Today we were on a bus that had maybe 15 seats and there were at least 30 people on that just all smashed together. It’s always an adventure. We also occasionally take a taxi if we have too much stuff to take onto the bus. When we have to go really far like Donetsk we take a train.
I’m sure I could get the address to the place I’m staying but it’s not really worth knowing.
If anyone else has questions, feel free to ask and I will be more than happy to answer them!
Thank you Maiava's for the letter it was wonderful.
Thank you Suzanne for the letter as well it’s great to hear from you.
Thank you Rachel it’s a bummer the other letter got lost.
I will do my best to write you all back in a timely manner……….. thank you again!
I love you all and am so grateful for all of the support I have from you all. I know the Lord is blessing you for all the support you have shown me. I am so grateful to be a part of this gospel and know that where ever I go I will always have family I can turn to, because when we are a part of this church…….. we are all family and we are all willing to help one another out and that is part of why I love this gospel so much. I want to be here is to share that joy and happiness I have from it. I love you all and wish you all a wonderful school year for those of you returning or with kids at school.
Love Elder Litchfield
No comments:
Post a Comment