Hello Mom,
Sorry tuesday is our P-day and I FINALLY get to write. I'm just going to send one big email so if you can tell everyone or forward it to them... I only have a half hour and only 24 min left AHHHHHH! so day one! I wanted to come home, I missed you all SOOO much! really bad home sick! we had a type of orientation meeting at the start... there was probably about 6 or 700 new missionaries the same day I came in. The president went around and asked where people were from and we would just stand up if it was our state or country. Only four from colorado ... :( not really representing lol. but there were some from mexico, Scotland, Japan, holland, .... everywhere, then he finally called Utah and three fourths the freakin stadium stands up! lol REDICULOUS! well things are so much better, I can now, greet, read, pray, and teach in Ukrainian. My russian is proving usefull. as my district of now 4 elders are the only ones speaking Ukrainian in the entire MTC, everyone else is russian. Our teacher calls it the enemy language lol so I get a marker thrown at me if I speak russian in class, I am the district leader of our very small district, which makes it easier to look after..... my very first companion went home yesterday........ WAY tough, after our Mission conference sunday it was about being worthy to be a missionary, I guess it hit home. He had some issues, and had to get them taken care of, our whol district felt sick..... Him and I were the only two in our residence the rest of my district was in another room, it took 2 days to find out if he could stay, and if he couldn't he was going to be deployed to Iraq, (army) I gave him a blessing of comfort the last night, reported it to my branch presidency. A counsler came and spoke to him and I alone. told me later to not let him leave my site, not only being a companion but a district leader, he said "I dont know if he is suicidal, we just want someone to let him know their there" so I did, I missed lunch and dinner yesterday, waiting outside Pres. Creg's office. his parents did finally come, and he went home. I gave him that knife of mine I brought as a reminder to come back and serve. That the knife was not only a reminder but I gave it a representation as the gospel, it is beautiful, peircing, and if you let it, it will take care of you. he starting crying, we all hope to see him or hear from him again. it was really tough. his experience made not only me but my district start looking at our ownselves and our ownworthyness, we talked about it and I think we are all ok. Our Zone leaders are russian speaking they came and wanted to see how we were doing, the two languages are interesting, we can understand russian (excluding what I know of russian) but the russians cant understand us. its WAY weird, because the languages are kind of similar. so the russians going to the Ukraine come to us for help with ukrainian. lol oh ok YOU NEED TO WRITE!!!!!! everyone in the last 6 days have gotten letters but me... my box number is 116 so with the address I gave you be sure to put that on there! HURRY it up would ya! lol I've got a funny picture to send you all when I get one. oh and I need my medical records for immunization. I got stuck with the h1n1 virus. mandatory here so they can give the vaccine afterwards... well she stuck me once to give me a shot and she NAILED the nerve "I was like.... ouch" no big deal then she sticks me with another shot differenct spot SAME NERVE! OUCH! lol "i have never done that before" she says lol well I miss and love you all, oh my old companion was Elder richardson... you know the guy from sandy. my new companion is elder kuczak he is the "senoir" companion and I'm the district leader. we are all new so it helps... well I have to go I have little time! but please write. yes those are the chords, I do need the belt, and if you can I am going to need some money at one point.... garments kind of crippled me but I got them. I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOO MUCH! oh taleya there is an elder here that just cracks me up! haha you would like him he is like a cowboy nolan lol Elder Wilson. well dopobachinyou (ukr) lol LOVE YOU!
Ctareeshena Johnson ( Elder) :D
