Week 5 in Lugansk, Ukraine August 13, 2012
Hello family and friends again!!!!
Let me tell you first off about my day today :) so we did like a little BBQ today as a district (of four) and I was sitting in a tree as we waited for the other two elders to show up. I was just hanging out, having a good time and they showed up walked down with all the stuff we needed.
Hello family and friends again!!!!
Let me tell you first off about my day today :) so we did like a little BBQ today as a district (of four) and I was sitting in a tree as we waited for the other two elders to show up. I was just hanging out, having a good time and they showed up walked down with all the stuff we needed.
I saw Elder Mika had a watermelon and it looked so
good. He walks over to me and I thought he was going to fake throw the
watermelon at me, but no! He actually threw it to me. I was thinking hmm this
isn’t going to end well for me. I caught the melon and as I caught it the
forced me…..well, kind of pushed me out of the tree. Yeah, I fell
probably about 10 feet from the tree to the ground and landed nicely on the
watermelon. It exploded on me and my shirt was nice and sticky for the
rest of our time. It was a good start to the day ha ha, but I am okay, so
don’t worry! The bees were all over me because of the watermelon juice ha
ha.
This week was an interesting week, so I’ll start with some good news about our mission as a whole. There was a baptism last week, which was I think the first one in a while. That was extremely exciting for the mission as a whole. Well, a few weeks ago this random guy came into the church and seemed pretty interested in the gospel and he came to a few activities and the other elders in our district have been teaching him and have him set on a date for baptism for September first!!!!! So amazing!!! They also have another girl who they may have a date set up for baptism for September first as well, so it’s awesome. Now as a whole mission there are going to be 7 BABTISMS this weekend. That’s a crazy amount and it is so great to see the gospel spreading and I have come to realize that I may not be getting a ton of personal success, but who cares about me, we are all on the same team here and when one person joins, it’s a win for every single missionary and member throughout the world! So that is super exciting!
Now as for Elder Stradling and I we have been trying super hard to get lessons with members and just lessons in general but most of the time there is always something that comes up, so our people are cancelling or they don’t show up. It’s been a little difficult lately, but this week we had a few lessons that went really well. We had a lesson with Roman who has now come to church the last 3 weeks in a row, so that is amazing progress! He is moving along and I hope he figures it out that the reason he stays around is because of the feeling of the spirit. We had a few member lessons and talked about missionary work and they seemed super receptive. Hopefully in the next few weeks things will start to pick up, like I kept saying they would. We had a lesson with this taxi driver the other day and since he is super busy, he has not really been able to meet and he kept bailing on us. But this time he found a little bit of time and so we hopped in his taxi and sat in there and had a lesson with him in his taxi.......it was a little odd to me ,but it was a lesson so it’s a starting block! We have been getting a ton of contacts, but all of them keep telling us they are too busy. I hope that some of them will be able to find a little bit of time and just hear our message and see how the gospel truly blesses and changes lives!
On our last p-day Elder Strandling and I bought some hammocks. We got to relax in our hammocks for awhile and we did that again today, it was a very relaxing time just sitting and enjoying a hammock. We started a puzzle a few weeks ago as well, but have not gotten very far. We got the boarder completed, but when we get home at night we are just so tired and didn’t feel like focusing on a puzzle. We played chess one night and Elder Strandling said that I was his first companion he has ever beaten, so that made me feel pretty good about my chess skills. ha ha My chess skills are nonexistent!
We had an Elder Per G. Malm of the 70 come and talk to our mission last week and he spoke at the MTC as well. He talked a lot about the time we have with our investigators is very small and so we need to find ways to get them more involved with the church throughout the week, rather than just the 90 minutes we get when we meet with them. I thought that was a really cool idea to think about. It’s really hard to meet with people right now for some reason, but a simple text or simple phone call can really go a long way for new investigators and for new converts……… so that’s our focus right now. We also want to work with members and help them be more involved. Things are good here. It’s a lot of work and a lot of fun. If anyone was wondering what the hardest thing about being a missionary is, I will tell you……... you may think its finding people or teaching people or understanding the language, but no, it’s none of these.
This week was an interesting week, so I’ll start with some good news about our mission as a whole. There was a baptism last week, which was I think the first one in a while. That was extremely exciting for the mission as a whole. Well, a few weeks ago this random guy came into the church and seemed pretty interested in the gospel and he came to a few activities and the other elders in our district have been teaching him and have him set on a date for baptism for September first!!!!! So amazing!!! They also have another girl who they may have a date set up for baptism for September first as well, so it’s awesome. Now as a whole mission there are going to be 7 BABTISMS this weekend. That’s a crazy amount and it is so great to see the gospel spreading and I have come to realize that I may not be getting a ton of personal success, but who cares about me, we are all on the same team here and when one person joins, it’s a win for every single missionary and member throughout the world! So that is super exciting!
Now as for Elder Stradling and I we have been trying super hard to get lessons with members and just lessons in general but most of the time there is always something that comes up, so our people are cancelling or they don’t show up. It’s been a little difficult lately, but this week we had a few lessons that went really well. We had a lesson with Roman who has now come to church the last 3 weeks in a row, so that is amazing progress! He is moving along and I hope he figures it out that the reason he stays around is because of the feeling of the spirit. We had a few member lessons and talked about missionary work and they seemed super receptive. Hopefully in the next few weeks things will start to pick up, like I kept saying they would. We had a lesson with this taxi driver the other day and since he is super busy, he has not really been able to meet and he kept bailing on us. But this time he found a little bit of time and so we hopped in his taxi and sat in there and had a lesson with him in his taxi.......it was a little odd to me ,but it was a lesson so it’s a starting block! We have been getting a ton of contacts, but all of them keep telling us they are too busy. I hope that some of them will be able to find a little bit of time and just hear our message and see how the gospel truly blesses and changes lives!
On our last p-day Elder Strandling and I bought some hammocks. We got to relax in our hammocks for awhile and we did that again today, it was a very relaxing time just sitting and enjoying a hammock. We started a puzzle a few weeks ago as well, but have not gotten very far. We got the boarder completed, but when we get home at night we are just so tired and didn’t feel like focusing on a puzzle. We played chess one night and Elder Strandling said that I was his first companion he has ever beaten, so that made me feel pretty good about my chess skills. ha ha My chess skills are nonexistent!
We had an Elder Per G. Malm of the 70 come and talk to our mission last week and he spoke at the MTC as well. He talked a lot about the time we have with our investigators is very small and so we need to find ways to get them more involved with the church throughout the week, rather than just the 90 minutes we get when we meet with them. I thought that was a really cool idea to think about. It’s really hard to meet with people right now for some reason, but a simple text or simple phone call can really go a long way for new investigators and for new converts……… so that’s our focus right now. We also want to work with members and help them be more involved. Things are good here. It’s a lot of work and a lot of fun. If anyone was wondering what the hardest thing about being a missionary is, I will tell you……... you may think its finding people or teaching people or understanding the language, but no, it’s none of these.
The hardest part of being a missionary is figuring out what
tie you are going to wear that day, especially when you have a large selection!
ha ha
If anyone of you were wondering about the mail system here, this is how it goes……. The mail gets sent to our mission home and that’s in Donetsk and the only time we get letters is when the AP’s (Assistant to the mission President) come to do splits or we have a mission conference. It could be a long time before I get any of the mail, but when I do get it, it comes all at once.
I just thought you would like to know that.
Thank you all so much for the mail. I love to get it!
Uncle Joe, thank you for all of the letters you send from the other missionaries. I got three of them all at once, so it was nice to read them right in a row.
Aunt Suzanne, thank you for the recipe. I forgot to tell you thank you for that.
Grandma and grandpa I can’t remember if I thanked you for the general conference Ensign.
Uncle Joe, thank you for all of the letters you send from the other missionaries. I got three of them all at once, so it was nice to read them right in a row.
Aunt Suzanne, thank you for the recipe. I forgot to tell you thank you for that.
Grandma and grandpa I can’t remember if I thanked you for the general conference Ensign.
So I will say it again. Thank you.
O’Neill’s I got your post card, thank you very much. It’s nice to see the beach and the water.
O’Neill’s I got your post card, thank you very much. It’s nice to see the beach and the water.
Thank you to everyone else who is supporting me. I know that I am being helped through my mission from your prayers and support. Ii love you all and am so grateful to be a part of such a wonderful gospel and I know that it is true and it brings so many blessings to those who live it.
I love you all and wish you all a happy day and hope gearing up for school will go nice and smoothly. Love you.
Love Elder Litchfield
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