Xристос воскрес

Long overdue apartment cleaning 

Not a whole lot happened this week but it was of course a good one. Elder Petersen and I are having a lot of fun and getting a lot done. The only bad thing is I don't have a lot to write about and I didn't take any pictures sooooooo sorry mom!

We had exchanges this week with Khmelnytskiy. I got to spend another day with Elder Swasey, which is always fun. We had a good time and got to talk about a lot. He doesn't have much time left on his mission so he is working super, super hard to finish strong and it was cool to watch. We met with a guy from Egypt named Eyad (don't worry I don't know how to say that either). It was a really good lesson. He is young but very attentive and so interested in learning more. He is pretty strict to his Muslim background but he loved what we had to share and he agreed with all of our thoughts and added his own.

We have had some AMAZING weather here in Chernivtsi. It was like 70's. So nice. The only bad thing is the rain that keeps coming out of nowhere. We will be walking outside without a cloud in the sky, go inside for 10 minutes and then walk out and it is pouring rain. But I'm not complaining because without it, I sweat way too much. We just couldn't believe we are wearing short sleeve shorts again.

My ghetto desk in the apartment LOL!

Everyone here celebrated Easter on the 28th of April, well technically it's like from the 26th to the 30th, I don't even know because Ukrainians celebrate anything and everything. Everyone at church was in good spirits though because it was a big holiday for them. One of the biggest here in Ukraine.

Every time we talked with someone today they said "Xристос воскрес" which means "Christ is risen", and then you are supposed to respond with " воістину воскрес" which means "For the truth has risen". I thought that was so cool! So I'll leave you with that today.


Love you all,
Elder Kenyon Matua

Week One with Elder Peterson - April 22

Russian Escape Rooms are so fun!

First week is always a bit of an adjustment. Elder Petersen and I get along super well and we are so excited to serve together. The only thing that took adjusting was getting settled in this apartment, and this apartment is, eh, so we did a lot of renovating and fixing this place up. We replaced around 30 lights...I don't know why but there is 67 lights in this apartment so we didn't need them all but we can actually see now it's great. We had a super good P-Day last week. We ended up doing an escape room after we went bowling and it was way fun. We were pretty proud of ourselves because we got the fastest time of the month and it was all in Russian, and we hardly know Russian.

I got to do a lot of showing Elder Petersen around the city and it was actually good because I haven't been here for very long so I got to see a lot I haven't seen before. It was interesting because we were walking around Thursday night and we saw a ton of Indian people all dressed up in like celebration clothes and they were all taking pictures and stuff. There are a ton of students here studying but we had no idea what was going on, they were like driving around, hanging out the windows with the Indian flag and they were all cheering and yelling these chants back and forth with all their friends on the streets, it was pretty crazy. We still have no idea what it was.

Our favorite Georgian food joint

We met with one of our new investigators for the second time and it went really well. He had some interesting questions but for the most part we were able to stay on topic. He has a hard time getting carried away and talking about random stuff but he seemed a little more interested this time. He also prayed at the end and it was one of the best prayers I have heard from an investigator. He just said everything he was thinking and asked Heavenly Father to help him know if the Book of Mormon is true and if Joseph Smith was a prophet. A really cool experience.

Elder Petersen hooked me up with some shoe glue!

Finished off the week with celebrating Easter and my birthday yesterday. Elder Petersen and the sisters here in Chernivtsi made it a good one. Huge props to the sisters, they made doughnuts that tasted just like Krispy Kreme and Elder Petersen and I whipped up a super good dinner. Thank you for all the birthday wishes! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and had the opportunity to spend some extra time thinking about the Savior and His life and ministry. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and everything He did for me.


Love you all and have an amazing week!
Elder Kenyon Matua

Transfer Texts - April 14

This week was crazy busy. We got transfer texts and my companion is changing once again. I will be serving here in Chernivtsi with Elder Peterson. We are super excited to be serving together but very sad to see Elder Tuttle leave. We had a good time together and he will be missed.

We saw some small miracles throughout the week. Elder Tuttle and I were praying for some new investigators because we didn't have very many. We had some but they weren't very solid so we were trying super hard to find some new people to teach. We decided to call some old IP's from the area book. We ended up finding 3 new people to teach and we met with all of them last week. We are so glad we were finally able to find some new people to teach. The Lord was definitely looking out for us this week; just like He always is. It'll be cool to see if these people progress in the gospel.

We got to watch conference with the branch yesterday and Saturday and we had a really good turn out on Sunday which was good because we really wanted a couple members to hear what was being said. And 3 of our investigators came!! It was super cool experience and I hope they continue to come.

We are finally going bowling today...It's been too long. Hopefully I'll find the groove again haha. Sorry I didn't take a single picture this week. There wasn't really anything to take pictures of and I didn't wanna pull my camera out during conference. So I will make sure to take a ton this week....Sorry mom.


Have an amazing week!
Elder Kenyon Matua

Baptism and General Conference

We were blessed to be at Andriy's baptism

We had a super good weekend this last week!! We didn't have to much go on throughout the week because there was a lot of preparing for the baptism but it was amazing.

We had the baptism for Andriy on Saturday. It was really funny because we did it at a sauna because there is no font here. It went really well though. There wasn't very many people there but Andriy seemed very grateful and he said it was awesome. He was able to receive the Holy Ghost yesterday and he was again grateful for it. He even showed up in a suit which was really cool. I am so grateful he made the choice to be baptized and that he is willing to share the gospel with his wife and daughter so we are praying for them to find time to meet with us.

We got to watch the morning sessions of general conference and man they were amazing. Yes I'll admit we were waiting, just like the entire church, we were waiting for announcements but when we realized there probably wont be any, we were very intrigued by the words of the leaders of the church. Especially President Nelson. Everything he talked about and bore testimony of, got me so excited for whats ahead. I know there are some big changes coming up and the testimonies that we heard will help us cope with those changes. I loved the stress over the family and a Christ-centered home. Hopefully my family is trying to do the same.? Nah just kidding I know they are.

Watching General Conference with the Sisters

I hope I get to finish the rest of conference and absorb EVERYTHING we were counselled to do. I love general conference and can't wait! Love you all have an amazing week!


Love you all,
Elder Kenyon Matua

Zone Conference and Emergency Transfer

Exchanges with Elder Peterson
in Khmelnyskyi

We had a very eventful week this week!

We left to Khmelnyskyi on Tuesday and got there late at night. We had exchanges on Wednesday and I got to spend the day with Elder Peterson. It was a really good day and we got a lot done and got prepared for leaving to Lviv Thursday morning. We got to Lviv and headed straight to the church where we met a bunch of other missionaries. Friday we had zone conference, it was super, super long but really good. We started at 10 am and didn't finish till 6 pm with a lunch break in between. Even though it was so long, we learned so much and after my companions and I had our interviews with President Kumferman. They went really well and I learned so much from President. We left Saturday night on the only train back and it was not so pleasant. It was only 4 hours but we were knee to knee and it was not fun. But we made it home which is what matters.

We got some interesting news concerning our companionship. On Tuesday, before we left to Lviv, we got a call from President Kumferman. He informed me that an elder in a different city decided he wanted to go home so his companion needed a new companion. He told me to hand the phone to Elder Taran who was informed that he would be leaving to a different city so we needed to go home and pack his bags and send them in the mail before we left to Khmelnyskyi. The only problem was we needed to be at the bus station in an hour and a half. So we booked it home and packed his bags and sent em out. It was a super surprising call and we are sad to see Elder Taran leave our companionship. Gonna be hard not having a native to just talk to everyone when there is a problem. So we will see how this goes. But Elder Tuttle and I are super excited to serve together.

Touring Hogwarts University

We also toured "Hogwart's University" here in Chernivtsi today. Super cool and super interesting. First Pday we actually had time to do something so that was good. The Elections were yesterday and things were a little crazy in Lviv while we were there. Saw a massive group of people protesting and hundreds of swat dudes. So ya its gettin pretty heated but it'll all calm down soon.

So excited to watch general conference this week. None of us can wait. Hope there are some super cool changes to continue to strengthen our work as members of such an amazing restoration.


Love you all!
Elder Kenyon Matua

Hanging with the Elders in Khmelnytskyi

With Elders Mills and Tuttle

Back with Elder Stottchik

Busted my shoe

Zone Conference!

Me and Elder Cluff ate this 2kg burger