УКРАЇНА!!!!

Last night in the MTC with the fella's

Arrived! Feels super weird that I am actually here. Definitely different from the MTC. After being here, the MTC still feels like home. But I'm lovin it and lovin the work already!!

Arrival in Ukraine with Pres & Sis Kumferman

We left the MTC around 6 am and had a long day of traveling. Weird to be the ones constantly being stared at, and it hasn't stopped for one minute since we've been here in Ukraine. When we arrived, President and Sister Kumferman were waiting for us with the AP's. They took us back to the mission home where we had a 10 minute briefing and then started interviews. The sisters went first while the elders went out contacting. I was sooooo nervous. But it ended up being really fun! I went with elder Galmeister, one of the AP's because he was one of the only Ukrainian speakers there at the time so I got lucky. We only contacted for about an hour and only got yelled at twice. One was a guy with no shirt who didn't seem all there and he didn't even say any words he just yelled at the top of his lungs. We both just started laughing so hard. We went back and had the rest of our interviews! My interview was super good and I got assigned to Рівне (Rivne) and with my trainer Elder McGrath from Arizona. Well he always says he's from Saudi Arabia because he's lived there for a while now but originally from Mesa Arizona! I love him so much!

Intake on my first day

We had the rest of our training the next day and then headed out to Рівне. We had to ride a pretty squished bus for 6 hours which was not fun but it got us here. We got in really late and just crashed. We live in an old army base apartment. It's not bad at all. Except we shower with a hose, but there's hot water so not complaining.

The first couple of days consisted of contacting and member lessons. The members are awesome!! At least from what I can understand when I talk to them. The member lessons were super good. All I can really do is bear my testimony because I have no idea what they are saying. It'll work for now but ya that's gotta get better. We also taught one of our investigators named Віка. She is amaaaazing!! We watched the restoration movie to start and she cried like three times during it and I was like oh my goodness this is the best thing ever...BAAHAHH! When we finished she had so many questions about the Book of Mormon because she reads every night from 9-10...How awesome is that?! She then told us an experience she had the other night of when she was reading and praying and then she just felt an "indescribable feeling" where she just started breaking down crying next to her bed and she didn't know what it was or what to do and ya she was scrambling for words. And then she started to cry right in front of us again!! It was super cool. We talked to her for a while and then...I...asked her to be baptized!! I was so nervous to do it but I just sent it. So crazy! She said yes!!! but then she said she's not ready...But then we got her to kind of say yes again bahaha. But it was all good because she came to church yesterday and she loved it!! There is no doubt in my mind she will get baptized. I also spoke in sacrament so I hope that helped her also...If she could even understand me. The lesson we taught her was all in English btw that's why I understood what was going on BAHAHA.

With Elder McGrath, my first night was spent in a hotel

I also taught my first English lesson!! Was super fun! Except for Elder McGrath and I drew the short straw and had to teach the beginners class. So I taught in English while he translated. It was still super fun though. After we finished teaching all the classes we joined together and I shared an experience about America. I shared the time that my man Owen Gubler got thrown in the game at Nationals with Crocks and basketball shorts on. So funny! And we always have to have kind of like a message to tie along with it that doesn't really do with the gospel so I just mentioned that we have to be ready for anything and everything that comes our way. I kind of told it in a dumb way but they all love hearing stories about America so they were all tuned in. Super funny.

We rode a маршука (a little yellow bus. we take them literally everywhere) on Friday out to a little village to do service for a member. We helped them gather all of their potatoes. So many potatoes. And it was a small garden. I was so glad it wasn't one of the massive ones that we were surrounded by out there. But it was really fun and they fed us before and after and gave us a bunch of fruit to take home.

First Sunday here was super good! Very different experience because there were only like 30 people but it was really cool. A few old ladies that are just the sweetest, a bunch of single guys and like two little kids, and one full family with a son that just got home from his mission in England. He is super cool and speaks super good English. Every Sunday night we go to the other elders' apartment in our area and sleep there for pday. We make a really big dinner too...last night was egg burritos which is like a tradition around here. They were AMAZING but kinda made us feel a little sick today. Totally worth it. The food here is just soooooo good. Way better than MTC food that's for sure.

My Trainer - Elder McGrath from AZ

First P-Day today obviously. We were gonna go to Острог, but the weather is wayyy to crazy. It's super windy and raining. So we went to the mall which was actually way fun. We went bowling and got all of our groceries for the week. I love it because we cook everything. It is insanely cheap here. We bought a ton of groceries for $600 in Ukrainian money which is like $30 in US. It is so weird how cheap everything is. We ride the маршука for 5 грн  a piece which is like 10 cents. We just living the life out here.

It is so crazy being out here in the field. It is as hard as everyone says but everyone here says just to get through your first transfer. They also say everyday will speed up because it feels like everyday is a week right now. It'll get better and so will my Ukrainian....hopefully. Love all of you and thank you for the support!

з Любов'ю,

Старійшина Матуа

My new home

Unpacking in my new home

Not sure what this is

Our church building

Inside our church building

Breakfast burritos!

Shopping for the essentials

Doing service

Bowling with the boys

Smashing

The last week in the MTC

The best zone ever!

Heading out this coming Monday and couldn't be happier. All of us are so ready to leave. Not really ready to go to a foreign country where we don't understand the language though. But we all just wanna leave this place.

Nothing too exciting this week. The most exciting thing was getting our flight plans. It was like Christmas morning. As soon as one person saw them, everybody rushed to the computers. We fly to Portland, then Amsterdam, then Ukraine! Got an email from the mission and they are pretty excited for us! Can't wait!

We also are leaving the MTC undefeated in soccer. For like 27 weeks now. Eastern Europe be taken dubs out here.

Leaving the MTC undefeated soccer champs

Had our last Skype TRC yesterday and it was super fun! We taught a native Ukrainian named Irop (Ihor). I went really well. He was super funny. Gonna miss Skyping them but hey, now it'll be for real. Super Nervous.

Very small email because once again, nothing to write about.

I will share what we heard last night in our last Tuesday devotional though. President Robert C. Gay, a member of the seventy presidency, spoke to us. One thing he talked about that stood out to me is that faith is a daily decision. We have to decide everyday to choose to be faithful. "Faith has a short shelf life". We also mentioned that we have to "Decide to decide". We need to decide that we will start making decisions in our lives on a daily basis. Chose to show your faith in Christ every. single. day. Choose to follow His example. I know He lives. I know God lives. I love them so very much and look forward to returning to their presence.


I love all of you and thank you for the support!

Старійшина Матуа

Elder Fanaika left for St. Louis

My last 5AM laundry day

Getting ready for the day

Week 7 - MTC

Been waiting for this dude - Elder Stosich!

Can't Believe Its September!! What's even worse to think is I've been here since July... I can't wait to get out into the field. We are all at that point where we are all so ready to leave but not ready to go. If that makes any sense. We just all wanna get outta here but we are all scared to go to the field because then it's real.

Another part of being here for so long is we really do the same thing everyday. I mentioned this in my last email but it really is true. Our lives are on repeat. One of the most exciting things was probably that we got chick-fil-a for dinner Monday night. And also super jealous of Elder Chappell and Elder Black (both elders going to Estonia). They are in New York right now picking up their visas.....THEY FLEW TO NEW YORK and they come back tonight!! And they get to go on splits with the missionaries in New York!!! Ah so jealous.

We had a really good Sunday this past week. Every Sunday after the devotionals, they show films in a bunch of different rooms around the MTC. This week our district went and watched a talk given by Elder Holland to the MTC a few years ago called "Open Your Mouth". He talked about so much and it was so hard to take notes cuz he just kept going and it seemed like he didn't take a breath. One

We're bored - so we drew on the board

thing he talked about that stuck with me, was he shared that one of the greatest 'open your mouth' passages, that most people don't think about often, is The First Vision. As Joseph was started to pray, he made an account that an evil spirit had come over him and HIS TONGUE WAS BOUND. Elder Holland went on saying Satan can't kill you. It's impossible for him to kill anyone. He also said that if Satan could kill anyone, Joseph would've been the first person he targeted. But because he couldn't kill Joseph the next thing closest to it was binding his tongue. "Just short of taking a life". And that's how important it is for us to Open our Mouths. It is the best tool we have out here besides the Spirit. Which was what last nights Devotional was on. Elder Kyle S. Mckay spoke to us. It was an amazing devotional also. He talked a lot about how we need to teach with the spirit always. There is too much I could share from his talk but one thing that stuck out to me was he said "We need to stop saying 'how can I better teach with the spirit' and start saying 'how can I better invite the spirit to teach with me'". A little confusing at first but it makes total sense. We need to start inviting the spirit to be present with us while we teach. Let him observe and fill our mouths while we teach.

Sorry not very much to talk about other than devotionals because thats all week look forward to because it's one of the only things thats different every week. And we look forward to choir. Everyone loves choir.

Love you all and thank you for the support and the emails. It is so nice hearing from all of you! Please continue to do so and share you experiences with me.

My recreation clothes!

Week 6 - MTC

It was pouring rain walking back from class

Very uneventful week this past week in the MTC. Been here six weeks now and nothing has changed. It's breakfast, class, lunch, study, dinner, class.
   
This past week, two districts from our zone headed out to the field. Was a sad week with them gone because we had all made super good friends in that group. But the good thing is that we are the oldest now! It is still weird to think we have been here for six weeks. Feels like six months but at the same time feels like six days.
   
On Thursday our district decided we would do an English fast. ALL DAY! The worst part is in our district, there is four different languages being spoken and there is only 9 of us. So none of us understood each other but now we are all really good at charades. It was so hard to not speak English because we don't know near as enough Ukrainian to just speak it.  But at the same time we realized how much we do know and how much we've progressed. That night we talked about it and we realized how much it helped and we made a commitment to do it every night from 9:30 to 10:30, right before we go to bed. It has been going well and actually paying off a lot. 
   

My new tag

Elder Howard and I taught our first skype TRC. We taught a guy named Nickolas. He was super cool! Born and raised in Ukraine and now he is serving our military. It was good to actually hear a native and he helped a lot with our pronunciation and other tips for Ukrainian. We have about 3 more of those skype TRC's and I can't wait they are super fun.
   
These last couple weeks have been very stressful and overwhelming. Always telling myself that I am not doing enough, what am I doing wrong everyone is learning the language faster, I need to do more, I need to try harder. Because of this I started to study so hard and work myself to death with language and studies and everything else. But I didn't see anything getting better, if anything, it was getting worse. I flipped open my scriptures hoping and praying to find an answer. I opened up to D&C 10. Joseph Smith is an amazing, amazing man and I thank Heavenly Father for him and what he did for us everyday, but he is human just like the rest of us. And reading in chapter 10 I just got the sense that Joseph Smith was soooo overwhelmed with everything the Lord was asking him to do. And then I read verse 10: "Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength...but be diligent to the end". The Lord expects so much from us and we can't do anything without His help. But in the scripture he reminds us to do everything we can but to not do more than what is expected. And to just work hard and be diligent. I testify that no matter how hard things get in life we can turn to the Lord and ask for help, I know that if we are diligent in anything the Lord will provide a way.

Love and Miss y'all

Старійшна Матуа

Liking the new tag

Elder Norrung from Denmark - left this week

Elder Shaw from Idaho - also left this week.

So sad Shaw and Norrung are gone

Elder Otterson is gone too - sad

Week 5 - MTC: 5 Weeks = 5 Years

District temple visit

I have been here for 5 weeks!! It is still so weird to think that. The worst part is knowing I still got 4 more. I just wanna get out into the field but at the same time I am so nervous because I can't speak a lick of Ukrainian to save my life. And because I am 5 weeks in there isn't much to write about because there is nothing new.

Mom you saved my life this last week. It had been a pretty long week already and a stressful one. But then to get a package with a whole pan of panipopo was the best thing that could have happened. That night I heated them up and they were gone in less that a minute. Everyone was a little nervous to eat them at first but as soon as Elder Chappell did and said they were amazing, everybody swarmed.
   
This Sunday we had the opportunity to have President and Sister Martino with our zone all day. President Martino is the president of the MTC. It was super cool. They spoke in our sacrament and we just got to talk to them all day.
   
On Monday, the group that we came in with 5 weeks ago, will be the oldest ones here!! It's pretty fun and kinda weird again that we've been here for so long. We get another group of Russian missionaries in two weeks and I am so excited because we are getting some fun new people! Including Carson Stosich!! Can't wait to see him.
   

Best Zone ever

Finally I can close with the most exciting thing that happened this past week. We finally had an apostle come speak to us!! Elder Christofferson!! It was so cool! The whole time he talked pretty much about how bad we are doing at calling ourselves The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the word "Mormons or Mormon" is done. We are offending the Lord. And not only that but we are offending Mormon himself. He would be the first to say that this isn't his church. It was pretty crazy. Elder Christofferson is too nice but you could tell is message was a little like directed at us and how bad we are doing at it. He also told us we will be told plenty more at General Conference. So I can't wait to hear what they are gonna say. It starts with us. We can't control what other people say but we can fix what we are saying first. Awesome devotional and we sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer and it was super cool. It was broadcast to all the other MTC's so I think that made everyone sing 10 times louder. Super awesome.
   
Love and miss everyone! Thank you for the love and support!  Sorry the emails are getting shorter and shorter but not much to write about bahahah.

Study time LOL!